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MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

SOMEWHERE IN BELGIUM 








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“ ‘Fritz, Hans, and you, Hendrick, shame on you to hit an old 

man’ ” 

( Page 50) Frontispiece 


MAEIEKEN DE BEUIN 

SOMEWHERE IN BELGIUM 


BY 

MARTHA TRENT 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

CHAS. L. WRENN 



NEW YORK 

BARSE & HOPKINS 
PUBLISHERS 




Copyright, 1918 
by 

Barse & Hopkina 


JUN 20 1918 


©CU499398 


DEDICATED TO 

D. W I. 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Vegetable Omelet 11 

II Dinner at Six 19 

III A New Arrival 32 

IV Sophie Returns 48 

V A Night Alarm 59 

VI How the Letter Was Delivered .... 68 

VII The Secret of the Dairy Cellar ..... 78 

VIII An Anxious Evening 92 

IX Marieken to the Rescue ....... 101 

X The English Prisoners Escape 114 

XI The Wounded Soldier ....... 123 

XII Jeanneken Returns 133 

XIII Tommy Atkins 142 

XIV A Full Stomach Makes a Sleepy Head . . 154 

XV While the General Snored 164 

XVI The English! 172 

XVII Patsy 181 

XVIII Marieken Receives Two Decorations . . . 192 

XIX Days of Rest 201 

XX A Reunion 216 

XXI Introducing Alice Blythe 222 






ILLUSTRATIONS 


‘Fritz, Hans and you, Hendrick, shame on you to 
hit an old man ! ’ ’ ’ Frontispiece 

PAGE 

She threw the letter over the top of the parapet . 75 

‘ It's you!’ they both exclaimed’’ 151 


Marieken pointed hysterically down the road” . 183 



MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


SOMEWHERE IN BELGIUM 
CHAPTER I 


P 


THE VEGETABLE OMELET 

^LEASE, Herr Captain, take your muddy 
boots off my floor. I’ve just scrubbed 
it.” 

Marieken De Bruin uttered the above, not as a 
polite request but as a command. 

With her hands on her hips, her small well- 
shaped, blonde head held high, and her dark eyes 
flashing, she stood in the doorway of the Inn 
kitchen and frowned indignantly at the big Ger- 
man officer. 

Captain Ludwig Hein, of the Imperial German 
Uhlans, stopped on his way to the stove and 
laughed with lazy tolerance. 

“If my muddy boots dirty the floor you can 
scrub it again, little spitfire,” he replied. “You 


12 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

forget that this is a German kitchen and that yon 
serve Germans.” 

Marieken smiled and shrugged one thin little 
shoulder, but she did not openly contradict; in- 
stead she said with significance, 

“I have a bad memory for some things, Herr 
Captain. Only fancy, just now for the life of me 
I can ’t remember how to make a vegetable omelet, 
the kind you and the Herr General are so fond of 
— but — it doesn’t matter, if I must scrub the floor 
again I will have no time to make one for supper 
anyway, so — ” Another expressive little shrug 
finished the sentence, and she left the room 
humming softly. 

Captain Hein growled indignantly, but he was 
a prudent as well as a hungry man. Marieken had 
given him his choice and he wisely chose the 
omelet, although it annoyed him to forego the 
satisfaction of tracking mud on the spotless 
kitchen floor. 

One year before this story opens, the village of 
Zandre had been a happy, thriving hamlet. 


THE VEGETABLE OMELET 13 

The simple people had been contented with their 
little round of life and work. A worthy Burgo- 
master had governed them wisely, and a kind old 
Cure had stood by to help them in times of need 
with his ready understanding. 

The sun had smiled on their fields, and their 
labor had always been rewarded by plenteous 
crops. 

On the whole, the citizens had a right to be proud 
of the wealth, peace and prosperity of their 
village. 

Not the least important in the community in 
those quiet times was Monsieur De Bruin, the 
proprietor of the Village Inn, a bluff and hearty 
man whose fame as an innkeeper had spread 
throughout the countryside. Madame, his wife, 
was a frail, little woman from the city; she was 
responsible for the modern improvements that 
added so much to the comfort of their hostelry. 

There was a handsome son, Henri, a soldier in 
the Belgian Army, and Marieken, the fourteen- 
year-old daughter. She was a great favorite with 
her father and had grown up with more independ- 


14 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

ence of thought and action than is usually per- 
mitted to the average village girl. She had been 
away to school and spoke German and French, 
as well as her native Flemish. 

Besides the immediate family there were 
cousins : Jeanneken, a beautiful girl of seventeen ; 
Josef, a boy of ten; and Albert, a roly-poly baby 
of two. They were the children of Monsieur De 
Bruin’s brother, and when their parents died their 
aunt and uncle had received them, not only into 
their comfortable home, but into their big hearts 
as well. There, they had all lived in peaceful con- 
tentment as one big family. Then had come the 
dark days of the great war. 

Zandre, after a gallant resistance, fell to the 
Germans. Monsieur De Bruin was killed, one of 
the first heroes of that brave little army. 

Henri joined his regiment at the first call and 
was soon lost to his native village. 

The sudden shock of her husband’s death, fol- 
lowed by the horrors of the bombardment, left 
Madame De Bruin prostrate. 

Jeanneken, with her little brothers, was finally 


THE VEGETABLE OMELET 


15 


prevailed upon to join in the long file of fleeing 
refugees, but her little cousin and her aunt stayed 
behind to face the invaders. When the Germans 
marched triumphantly down the one main street 
of the village, they found it deserted, except for 
a few old peasants, the Burgomaster, the Cure 
and Marieken. 

They made an odd receiving committee, these 
three, as they stood in the market place : the two 
old men with their stooped shoulders and care- 
worn faces, and Marieken in her black apron, her 
cheeks glowing and her eyes afire. 

When the pompous and imposing General Von 
Dulk had ordered the Burgomaster to be locked 
up in his own prison and had sent the gentle 
Cure off to collect the few frightened villagers who 
had shut themselves up in their houses, he turned 
to Marieken. 

Now, it is not the thing for German officers to 
be taken by surprise, but when a very thin, very 
erect, little girl, not in the least abashed by the 
imposing display of uniforms, addressed him in 
his own language, the General admitted his 


16 MARIEKEN DE BEUIN 

astonishment. Marieken explained quite clearly 
why she had remained. 

“My mother is very ill, Herr General/ , she had 
said. “My father is dead; I am in charge of the 
Inn, but if you don’t let your men trample up my 
garden, or kill my chickens and cows, I can get 
you up a very respectable supper, also I will see 
that you have comfortable beds to sleep in and 
plenty of hot water. I am a very good cook,” she 
added quite simply. 

The General was completely dumfounded. He 
turned over several sharp replies in his mind. He 
knew that he ought to order her not to speak 
until she was spoken to, or to tell her that she 
was his prisoner and would do what he com- 
manded. But he did neither; he made the great 
mistake of accepting her proposal. 

True to her promise, Marieken prepared a din- 
ner, such as the nine officers on the General’s staff 
had not dared to dream of since the beginning of 
the war. 

After the meal the Herr General deigned to be 
pleased, and in a lordly fashion he promised her 


THE VEGETABLE OMELET 17 

his protection. Perhaps he had an unGerman 
respect for her daring courage, or perhaps the fact 
that she spoke his language excellently (his own 
French was very bad) softened his heart. But 
Marieken accredited her success entirely to the 
vegetable omelet. 

On so slight a thing will the fate of an empire 
sometimes rest. 

Six months passed and Zandre grew accustomed 
to being a German headquarters. A few of the 
villagers returned after months of hardships and 
suffering. They found their homes wrecked, but 
their new governors permitted them to build new 
ones and fed them grudgingly with grain that they 
themselves had helped to cultivate. 

Stunned and heartbroken, they took up the 
threads of their village life and the days dragged 
wearily on. 

When Marieken left the kitchen, after her veiled 
threat to the Captain, she climbed up the ladder 
that led to the tiny separate attic at one end of 
the Inn. 

“Ah, Mama,” she called cheerfully, when her 


18 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

head appeared above the opening, “are you all 
right?” 

Madame De Bruin, pale and wan, turned on the 
straw mattress that served as a bed and smiled 
and nodded, but there was no sign of recognition 
in her eyes. After a minute her glance wandered 
back to the window again. 

Marieken shook her head sadly, tidied the bed 
clothes a little and went back downstairs. She 
tiptoed into the kitchen; it was empty. She no- 
ticed that there were no muddy footprints beyond 
the spot where the Captain had stopped. 

She set about the preparations for an omelet, 
with a satisfied smile lurking at the corners of her 
mouth. 


CHAPTEK II 


DINNER AT SIX 


HE heavy thud of boots and the jangle of 



spurs, as two heels clicked together, made 


Marieken pause in the act of stirring the 
contents of a big pot over the stove and look up. 
A delicious aroma of stewing vegetables filled 
the room. 

“Well, what is it, Fritz ?” she inquired, as she 
recognized the General’s orderly standing at at- 
tention in the doorway. 

Fritz saluted gravely. He had been in the Gen- 
eral’s service for years, and when on duty had ac- 
quired some of his master’s pompous dignity. 

“The General’s orders, Fraulein,” he answered. 
“Dinner at six instead of seven.” 

“Why, it’s five o’clock now,” Marieken pro- 
tested. “What do they want it so early for?” 

Fritz’s eyes opened wide in astonishment. 


19 


20 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Fraulein, one does not ask questions when a 
general commands; one obeys,” he replied in re- 
buke. 

Marieken stamped her foot impatiently. 

“Oh, bother the General’s commands; go away, 
and I’ll ask him myself,” she scolded. “Such a 
lot of silly mystery over nothing.” 

“ W ell, what are you waiting for ? ’ ’ she inquired, 
as Fritz, his message delivered, relaxed a little and 
stood grinning sheepishly in the doorway. “If 
you are looking for cookies you might just as well 
save your time. I have none for you if you won’t 
tell me where the General goes to-night.” 

Fritz shifted his position. 

“It’s been a nice day, Fraulein,” he ventured. 

Marieken did not even acknowledge his remark 
by as much as a nod. She stirred her stew for a 
few minutes and then pushed the pot to the back 
of the stove and crossed the kitchen to open a big 
door that led into an airy pantry. 

Out of an earthen crock she took two dozen 
cookies, nicely browned on top, put them on a big 


DINNER AT SIX 21 

blue-and-white plate and left them on the table 
in the center of the room. 

Fritz eyed them hungrily and attempted blan- 
dishments. 

“What a wonderful cook you are, Fraulein Mar- 
ieken, ,, he said. “As good almost as a German 
girl. Even the Herr General deigns to say so.” 

Marieken laughed. 

“Do you think you can get a cooky out of me 
by such words, friend Fritz?” she inquired. 
“ ‘ Almost as good as a German girl,’ indeed. 
I’m a thousand times better, and you know it. 
When did a German girl ever make chocolate that 
wasn’t all bumps, or an amelet that wasn’t like 
shoe leather? Don’t you think I know? There 
were plenty of fat German girls at the convent 
with me.” 

She returned to the stove with a toss of her head 
and turned her small back on the nonplussed Fritz. 

He watched her in silence, and then tiptoed to 
the table. He was almost in reach of the desired 
cookies when Marieken whirled around in a fury. 


22 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

* ‘ Dare to touch one of those and I will tell the 
General, ’ ’ she threatened. 

Fritz growled and retreated to the doorway 
again, and Marieken went on with her prepara- 
tions. 

A few minutes before six a clatter of horses’ 
hoofs in the courtyard announced the return of the 
General. 

Marieken hurried toward the green baize door 
that led into the parlor, that served as an officers’ 
dining-room, with a tray of glasses. She 
stopped at the table to take the plate of cookies 
with her. Fritz knew that once that plate dis- 
appeared through that green door none of the 
cookies would ever find their way back to the 
kitchen. 

“The General goes to Voorle to-night to 
consult with General Markert,” he admitted 
gruffly. 

Marieken rested the tray on the back of a chair; 
the corners of her mouth twitched. 

“Why, Fritz, are you still here?” she asked. 
“I thought you had gone. Here, have a cooky, 


DINNER AT SIX 


23 


won’t you?” She chose two of the largest on the 
plate and tossed them to him, then she picked up 
the tray and hurried through the door. 

“Good evening, Herr General,” she said as the 
officers took their places at the table. 

“Ah, good evening, my little Friiulein, and how 
much do you love your German guests to-night ? ’ ’ 
General Von Dulk was possessed of a clumsy wit. 
He had asked this one question the first night at 
the Inn, and his officers had laughed loudly in 
appreciation, so he had repeated it every night 
since then. 

And every night Marieken had replied with a 
pretended seriousness, “That is my secret, Herr 
General, but I will tell you to-morrow surely.” 
To-night, however, she said instead, 

“How much does any innkeeper love his guests 
when they come in an hour too soon for dinner? 
What kind of a meal can you expect?” 

“But I sent word to you by Fritz,” the Gen- 
eral protested. 

“At five o’clock,” Marieken interrupted. 
“That left no time at all.” She shrugged her 


24 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

shoulders. “Well, all I can say is, don’t grumble 
when you taste what I have prepared. ’ 9 

When she had hurried out of the room Captain 
Hein brought his fist down on the table with a bang. 

“That child !” he exclaimed. “She is so im- 
pudent that my fingers itch to box her ears.” 

“Well, let them itch,” Lieutenant Strenger re- 
plied. “If you had seen General Markert’s quar- 
ters to-day and eaten what he was pleased to call 
lunch, you would appreciate our luck. When the 
war is over, I intend taking Marieken back to Ber- 
lin with me as cook. ’ ’ 

“I beg your pardon,” the General blustered, 
“but mine, I think, is the prior right.” 

“Well, I would teach her manners first,” Cap- 
tain Hein grumbled. “To-day I walked into her 
kitchen, and because my boots were muddy she 
turned on me like a little fury and commanded me 
not to take another step. I reprimanded her se- 
verely, I can tell you.” 

“But did you take another step?” Lieutenant 
Strenger inquired. 


DINNER AT SIX 25 

“No, I, er — well, as it happens I didn't — you 
see, I had left my cigarettes — ” 

The General led in the laugh that followed. 

Marieken came in before they had stopped, car- 
rying a big soup tureen. She put it down before 
the General and smiled roguishly as she uncov- 
ered it. 

“Only onion soup, Herr General, but I had so 
little time , 9 9 she apologized demurely. 

“You little vixen, so this is your cold supper, 
is it?” The General pretended a great wrath. 
“We shall see what happens to little girls who try 
to deceive their elders. ’ ' 

“Better wait a little while,” Marieken sug- 
gested, as she went back to the kitchen to bring in 
the next course. It was the famous omelet, fol- 
lowed by beef supplied by the German Govern- 
ment, but Marieken had disguised it under a thick 
vegetable gravy. 

The General was delighted. He ate greedily 
and very fast. When he finished, he pulled Ma- 
rieken down to the arm of his chair, patted her 


26 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


cheek, drank her health in the wine that was left 
in his glass, and gave her a patronizing kiss. 

Marieken escaped to the kitchen as soon as he 
would let her and washed her face angrily at the 
kitchen pump. 

She did not return to the dining-room until the 
clatter of the horses and the confusion of leaving 
told her that they had started for Voorle. 

Then she went out around the back of the house. 

“Oh, Fritz,’ ’ she called. 

Several voices from the barn answered her. 

“Who wants to earn some cookies ?” she asked. 

“There aren’t any left,” Fritz’s voice replied 
from somewhere in the straw of one of the stalls. 

“Oh, yes there are; there’s a whole crock full. 
I hid them. If you’ll wash up I’ll give them to 
you. ’ ’ 

Three figures jumped to their feet with ala- 
crity. 

They were officers’ orderlies, quartered in the 
barn. They were supposed to stand behind their 
masters’ chairs at meals, but Marieken had found 
them a great nuisance and the General had been 


DINNER AT SIX 


27 


only too glad to send them out of the room, with 
orders that they were to help the Fraulein when 
she wanted them. 

Marieken had never imposed on the order. She 
was careful to repay their services with cakes or 
tarts; in return the men looked upon her with 
grudging admiration. 

Fritz and Hans volunteered to-night. 

“Mind you don’t break anything,” Marieken 
directed, as they lumbered off toward the house. 

“Why, Hendrick, what’s the matter with you?” 
she demanded, as she nearly stumbled over a pros- 
trate figure on the floor. 

A fair-haired, young German boy sat up and 
looked at her out of two heavy-lidded blue eyes. 

“The Herr Doctor, he says nothing, but I say 
I am sick,” he answered crossly. “See this cut 
on my arm. ’ ’ 

Marieken inspected the ugly red wound. 

“Did you show this to the doctor?” 

“Yes, and he told me not to bother him unless 
I had something really wrong with me. Now, 
Fraulein, what do you call that?” 


28 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Marieken considered a minute. 

“I call it a bad cut, Hendrick; you come with 
me and I HI fix it for you.” 

She led him to the pump in the middle of the 
stable yard, then she went into the house and 
came back with some soft linen torn into strips. 

“Now, don’t be a great baby,” she admonished, 
as Hendrick shrank from the sting of the cold 
water. “You ought not to have let this get so 
dirty. Now stop, I must get it clean; there this 
will hurt but only a little, so now the bandage. ’ ’ 

She bound up the arm neatly and tied the ends 
of the bandage. 

Hendrick watched her suspiciously. 

“Why do you do this, Fraulein; it will make the 
Herr Doctor angry perhaps . ’ 9 

“Then don’t tell about it.” 

“And I am a German. You must hate all Ger- 
mans; they make you work all day so hard. In 
my country no woman would bind up the arm of 
an enemy.” 

Marieken shrugged her shoulders and laughed 
softly. 


DINNER AT SIX 


29 

4 4 Remember that, Herr Hendrick, the next time 
you say my Belgium is part of your country, will 
you?” she asked. 

Hendrick nodded. 

4 4 You are a strange little girl, but I thank you,” 
he said gruffly. 

4 4 Oh, you’re quite welcome,” Marieken replied, 
as she returned to the house. 4 4 Try and go to 
sleep ; you ’ll be able to now. ’ ’ 

She found the three soldiers in the kitchen and 
hurried to give them their cookies. They de- 
parted gleefully. 

Marieken watched them go with a sigh of relief. 
She made a plate of dainty sandwiches, went down 
in the cellar, and brought back a small bottle of 
wine. She put them both on a tray with a fresh 
napkin over the plate. Then she stood still, look- 
ing hard at the floor. 

4 4 Papa dear, it is not the best wine,” she whis- 
pered, 4 4 and I think you must understand. ’ ’ Then 
as if she had finished a little prayer she straight- 
ened her back and took the tray up to the Gen- 
eral’s room and put it on the table beside his bed. 


30 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Once back in the kitchen again, she made haste 
to bolt the windows and doors and to pull down 
the shades. 

“And now, Herr Sentry, I am going to bed,” 
she said to herself, as she picked up the lamp and 
with much clatter of wooden sabots she climbed 
up the ladder to the attic she shared with her 
mother. 

She put the lamp on the ledge of the window, 
waited a few minutes, and then with an unlighted 
candle in her hand she slipped downstairs again 
and into the cellar. 

When she came back two hours later her cheeks 
were flushed and her hands were covered with dirt. 

“Is that you, Henri?” her mother asked fret- 
fully, as she climbed again to the attic. 

“No, dearest little Mama, it is Marieken; don’t 
you remember, Henri has gone to the city with 
papa ; soon they will come back. ’ ’ 

She patted her mother’s gray hair and made her 
drink a little milk, and sat beside her, holding her 
hand until she dropped off again to sleep. 

Then she tiptoed to the chimney at the end of 


DINNER AT SIX 31 

the attic and took out a grubby note book and a 
stubby little pencil from a chink in the wall. 

Several of the pages were filled with x’s and 
names in uneven columns. 

Marieken turned to the last one and began to 
write : 

‘ ‘ To Herr Captain Hein, for calling my kitchen 
German, xx. 

“To Fritz Horvitz, for saying I was almost as 
good as a German girl, xxx. 

“To the General, for that kiss, xxxxxxxxx . 1 1 

She made the entries neatly and returned book 
and pencil to their hidingplace. Then she un- 
dressed hurriedly, blew out the lamp, and crawled 
into bed. 

She was soon asleep, one arm thrown protect- 
ingly about her mother. 


CHAPTEE in 

A NEW ARRIVAL 

T HE next morning Marieken slipped out be- 
fore any one was awake and hurried to 
the chicken house that occupied one comer 
of the farmyard. In the days before the war 
Monsieur De Bruin had been very proud of his 
chickens. 

The Inn had been famous for its fresh eggs and 
tender broilers, and therefore the demands for 
omelet had been great, that was why Marieken 
had become so proficient in the making of them. 

Now, however, the number of hens had greatly 
diminished and the poor, bedraggled rooster did 
not strut around with his usual bravado. 

“Good morning, my chicks,” Marieken called 
as she unfastened the door. 

“How many eggs have you for me?” 


32 


A NEW ARRIVAL 


33 


Four big yellow hens flew off their roosts and 
clucked excitedly. 

4 4 Funny things/ ’ Marieken laughed, “I believe 
you all want me to look in your nests first; such 
jealousy I never saw. Go way with you and don’t 
make too much noise for I don’t want the old Gen- 
eral to know that Monsieur Le Cure gets the best 
of your eggs.” 

The hens strutted off to peck in the ground for 
a possible bit of grain, and Marieken, after a hasty 
look about her, slipped four large white eggs into 
her basket and returned to the house. 

No one stirred upstairs for it was only a little 
after dawn, and after throwing a little black shawl 
over her shoulders she went out again with the 
eggs hidden under her apron. 

It was a long way to Father Dacklin ’s little cot- 
tage, and Marieken had a chance to see all the 
ugly wounds that the war had inflicted on Zandre. 
Desolation and ruin were on every side. Many of 
the little houses were without roofs ; all were with- 
out windows. No smiling women with jolly babies 
in their arms came to the doors to call a welcome. 


34 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


A cloud of fear and apprehension hung over the 
villagers. In the distance the dreary rumble of 
the guns served as a fitting background. 

It was a depressing sight and she hurried on, 
trying not to look at the wasteful desolation. But 
although she could keep her eyes before her she 
could not keep her mind from dwelling on the past. 

It was a habit of her’s to talk to her father as 
if he were just beside her, and it seemed as if his 
spirit always answered and gave her the courage 
that she sought. To-day she was very lonely and 
very discouraged, the war seemed to color the past 
and obscure the future. She could think of noth- 
ing but the dull monotony of gray days, punc- 
tuated with the arrival of the troops, and more 
troops. 

“And once we were so happy,” she said aloud. 
“So happy and contented, Papa. Do you remem- 
ber the last time you and I walked down this road, 
it was on a feast day, and Henri was coming home? 
We walked to the station in the twilight to meet 
him; he was so gay and happy, he held me up in 
his strong arms and kissed me, and what presents 


A NEW ARRIVAL 


35 


he brought! A shawl for Mama, a new pipe for 
you, a fan for Jeanneken, tops for the boys, and 
a doll for me — a doll with brown eyes and curly 
brown hair, and a pink dress, and I played with 
it. Oh, Papa, that was so many years ago.” 

Marieken stopped in her walk, aghast at the 
change in herself. To her worried, embittered 
little mind it seemed incredulous to think that she 
had ever played with a doll and been happy. War 
is a grim instructor. Marieken had been under its 
tutelage for a long hard year. 

“Papa, Papa, will it never end?” she cried. 

Only the distressful moaning of the wind in the 
bare tree tops seemed to answer her, but from 
within herself a spirit kind and strong seemed to 
quiet the beating of her heart, and a voice whis- 
pered “Courage, my little daughter, your chance 
is not far off.” 

Marieken nodded her head as if in answer. 
The determined line came back to her trembling 
lips, and because she was the merriest and bravest 
of girls her eyes laughed up at the threatening 
sky. 


36 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


She had fully recovered her old fearlessness by 
the time she reached the church. 

She ran around the corner and up the tiny path, 
now overgrown with weeds, to the door of Father 
Dacklin’s cottage. 

She knocked. 

A cheery voice called, “come in,” and she 
pushed open the door, a gust of wind blew her 
scanty black skirt and sent her hair flying about 
her head. 

She curtsied respectfully and uncovered the 
basket. 

Father Dacklin got up from his place at the 
center table and came to greet her with out- 
stretched hands. 

“Ah, my little Marieken, I am glad to see you, 
come and warm yourself by the fire,” he said, 
taking her hands. 

Marieken shook her head. “I have only a min- 
ute, mon Pere,” she replied, closing the door be- 
hind her, “I slipped out before the General was 
awake. ’ ’ She looked around the room and sighed, 


A NEW ARRIVAL 37 

an exaggerated sigh accompanied by a slow nod 
of her head. 

The room was a man’s room, cluttered with 
books and untidily comfortable. 

“Just as I expected,” she said, “well I shall 
have to speak to her again.” 

Father Dacklin held up his hands in protest. 

“My dear child, please don’t, I am quite all 
right,” he said anxiously, “Mere Marie came yes- 
terday and I sent her away, poor soul she was 
too tired to work. The soldiers are worrying her, 
I fear, you must not scold her for she really wanted 
to put me to rights.” 

Marieken did not reply. She set about straight- 
ening the table and dusting. 

In a surprisingly short time the room was in 
good order, and she disappeared into the kitchen 
to return with a dainty breakfast on a tray. 

“Oh, but my dear child, you should not have 
done that,” Father Dacklin protested, “with all 
the work you have to do to take time to worry 
about an old man. ’ ’ 


38 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


4 4 Old man, what ! Nonsense, mom Pere, you are 
not old, and I love to work for those I love, I have 
so little chance now,” Marieken replied, angrily. 
4 4 No one, no, not even you, my very good friend 
will ever know how I hate serving that fat Gen- 
eral.” 

44 You are a brave little one, so brave in the face 
of so many hardships that I marvel at your great 
spirit.” 

Marieken looked at the old man as he spoke. 

44 I can be patient, mon Pere, and it is easy to 
be brave when one has plans,” she hesitated and 
added hurriedly. 4 4 But come, eat your break- 
fast.” 

4 4 Stay and share it with me,” Father Dacklin 
invited. 

4 4 No, I must hurry back, the General will be 
cross.” 

Marieken picked up the basket and sighed, the 
light and laughter died out of her eyes, and the old 
patient expression came back to her face. 

Half way across the room she stopped. 

44 I suppose there is no news?” she asked. She 


A NEW ARRIVAL 39 

hesitated, and her voice fell. 1 1 News of Henri, I 
mean,” she added. 

Father Dacklin looked at her and winced. 

“Courage, my child, I have no news so far,” 
he said. He went to her and put his arm about 
her thin little shoulders, protectingly. 

“But soon we are sure to hear, there is no 
way to receive a letter just now, and to send 
one — ” 

He pointed a trembling finger out of the win- 
dow. Marieken looked. At one end of the little 
street she could see a German flag waving over 
the postoffice. 

“To send one,” the Cure repeated, “one must 
use a German stamp.” 

Marieken gave a short, grim little laugh, and 
her eyes flashed. 

“If we must never hear, mon Pere, we will 
never do that,” she said with spirit. 

The Cure looked at her approvingly. Under 
the humble garb of a priest he had a stout and 
loyal Belgian heart. 

“Quite right, my child, but if we put our trust 


40 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

in the good God above and wait patiently all will 

be well.” 

‘ ‘ All will be well,” Marieken repeated as she 
picked up her basket and started back to the Inn. 

As she crossed the market square a sentry 
stopped her, more for something to do than from 
a sense of duty. 

“Where are you going?” he demanded. 

Marieken regarded him with gravity, her head 
on one side. “To Berlin to take breakfast with 
the Kaiser, stupid,” she replied in rapid Flemish, 
and passed on. 

The sentry was slow of thought as well as ac- 
tion, and Marieken was out of sight before he 
realized that her use of his Emperor’s name might 
not have been a complimentary one. 

When she reached the Inn she was surprised to 
find an unusual stir and bustle in the courtyard. 
A half dozen horses were pawing the ground im- 
patiently, and farther down the road a small de- 
tachment of mounted men waited at attention. 

She hurried into the kitchen. 

Fritz was standing over the stove. 


A NEW ARRIVAL 


41 


“Ah, Fraulein,” he exclaimed, gratefully, “you 
have come. The Herr General is waiting for his 
chocolate, and I was trying to make it; he is in 
a fury of rage.” 

Marieken took the command at once. The Offi- 
cers had already breakfasted before she went out. 
With the assistance of the excited Fritz, the choc- 
olate, toast and egg were soon ready, and Ma- 
rieken, inwardly trembling, but outwardly calm, 
carried the tray to the General. 

He was pacing up and down the floor, his hands 
clasped behind him. When he saw Marieken he 
stopped and frowned. 

“So you have come back, eh? Do you know I 
have had to wait for my breakfast.” 

“Indeed, yes, Herr General, Fritz told me ; what 
a pity. If you had but told me last night that you 
were going away so early all this delay might have 
been saved,” Marieken replied cheerfully. 

“Where were you?” the General demanded. 

“Out looking for eggs, Herr General; where 
else should I be at this hour? And of course I 
thought you were still asleep, and to think I did 


42 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


not find any either! Those gnns of yours have 
scared all the chickens that your soldiers have not 
stolen. Well — ” with a shrug, “it can’t be 
helped. But eat your breakfast, Herr General, or 
the chocolate will be quite cold,” she finished 
sweetly. 

General Von Dulk sat down before the tray and 
subsided into a series of grunts, and Captain Hein 
turned to Marieken. 

“Wish me luck, little spitfire; my turn has 
come, we hope to fight to-day. ’ ’ 

“What do you call luck, Herr Captain?” Ma- 
rieken inquired politely. 

* ‘ Oh, to meet with some of your chicken-hearted 
countrymen,” the Captain replied, grinning. 

Marieken flushed, indignant at the insult, but 
she smiled sweetly as she replied, “Then I wish 
you much luck, Herr Captain.” 

1 ‘ To-night I will bring back five new Officers with 
me; do you hear? See that you have a good din- 
ner, and don’t go gathering eggs again.” The 
General was speaking; his tone had softened a 


A NEW ARRIVAL 43 

little, for his mouth was full of toast, and he was 
decidedly cheered by the chocolate. 

Marieken dropped a little curtsy and mumbled 
“Yes, Herr General,” very meekly. 

The General nodded, finished his breakfast, and, 
his appetite satisfied, as well as his pride, he 
shouted some order to his Officers, mounted his 
horse, and rode off down the village street. 

Marieken watched the shiny black, patent- 
leather helmets and bright steel spear heads daz- 
zling in the sunshine, and listened until the last 
clatter of the horses ’ hoofs was lost in the rumble 
of the guns. When there was nothing left but a 
cloud of dust that was caught up and whirled an- 
grily away by the wind, she went into the house 
and set methodically about her work. 

A persistent knocking at the back door brought 
her from the top floor down to the kitchen. 

Mere Marie, one of the oldest women in the vil- 
lage, and one of the few who had refused to leave 
her home during the bombardment, was waiting 
to be let in. 


44 MARIEKEN BE BRUIN 

Marieken opened the heavy door, and she stum- 
bled into the room. 

i 1 They have killed Fifi!” she exclaimed, excit- 
edly, “ before my very eyes — they have killed her 
— what shall I do? What shall I do? I try to 
save her, my little love, but one great beast knock 
me out of the way and, there, in her own home, 
they kill her.” The poor old ragged form of skin 
and bones shook convulsively. 

Marieken patted her shoulder tenderly. 

“ There, there, Mere Marie, it’s too bad but you 
must not cry so ; stop and I will give you one of 
my littlest geese to take home with you, and I’ll 
ask the Herr General to tell his soldiers to leave 
you alone.” 

But Mere Marie refused to be comforted; her 
dearest possession, a big white goose, had been 
taken from her, and her poor old heart was broken. 

At last Marieken, with the aid of a little milk 
and a crust of bread, made her stop crying. 

“And now that you are here you must help me 
with my work,” she said, “wash up those dishes 
for me, like a dear, and then we will sit down and 


f 


A NEW ARRIVAL 45 

liave a little something to eat; it ? s not long before 
lunch time.” 

Mere Marie set about her task, crooning softly 
to herself, and Marieken, after a hasty glance to- 
ward the stables, started down the cellar steps. 

“If you see any Germans, Mere Marie,” she 
said, “don’t be afraid; come downstairs and call 
me.” 

Once in the cellar, she lighted a stump of a 
candle and groped her way to the farthest end. 
From the inside of an empty wine barrel she took 
out a shovel. After listening intently for a full 
minute, she set resolutely to work. 

When she returned to the kitchen Mere Marie 
had gone; an empty milk jug and some crumbs 
bore evidence that she had eaten her lunch. 

Marieken glanced at the clock ; it was a quarter 
past three. She washed her hands carefully and 
started to prepare dinner. 

Just as the sun was setting behind the broken 
spire of the little church, the General and his staff 
returned. Marieken heard the ring of their spurs 
as they dismounted and the short guttural orders, 


46 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


but she did not go near the front of the house un- 
til the dinner was ready. 

The General was in a jovial mood; he had ap- 
parently forgotten her offense of the morning, for 
when she came in with the soup tureen he patted 
her cheek and winked slyly at her. 

“Our little fraulein, the finest cook in Ger- 
many,’ ’ he explained to the new Officers. “She 
makes us forget she was ever a Belgian.” 

Marieken looked at the new faces around the 
table. Lieutenant Strenger and the Doctor were 
the only old Officers left, but except for names the 
new ones were almost exactly the same in face and 
manners, all except one tall, very thin man with a 
fair mustache and big serious blue eyes. He was 
Lieutenant Teutch. 

Marieken noticed he did not smile with the rest, 
and when the General chucked her playfully under 
the chin he frowned. 

“By thunder but this is delicious soup !” a very 
fat, very pink Major who sat at the General’s 
right exclaimed. 

“So, so,” the General admitted, “but not so 


A NEW ARRIVAL 


47 


good as last night, eh, little cook? Last night we 
had an onion broth. Himmel. After this war is 
over I will take Marieken to Berlin to cook for me, 
and some day she will make an onion soup for the 
Emperor. How will you like that, hey ? ’ ’ 

Marieken lowered her eyes and curtsied politely. 

“I will like very well to make that soup, Herr 
General,” she replied. 

When she lifted her head she found she was 
looking straight into the eyes of Lieutenant 
Teutch, and the amused expression in them made 
her feel that he understood with her, what the in- 
gredients of that particular soup would be, but 
the knowledge somehow did not frighten her, and 
her eyes smiled in answer to his. 


CHAPTER IV 


SOPHIE RETURNS 


SUCCESSION of rainy days followed 
one another in endless monotony. 



•A- Zandre was wrapped in a merciful haze 

that covered some of the ugly wounds. 

Detachments of German soldiers tramped dog- 
gedly through the mud with the same stolid ex- 
pression of indifference that they wore in the sun- 
shine. 

Marieken watched them from the kitchen win- 
dow and wondered. 

* 4 What do you think about when you march like 
that, Hendrick V’ she asked one day as the soldier 
was sitting before the fire, waiting to have his arm 
rebandaged. 

“ Different things, Fraulein,” he replied sur- 
prised. “Sometimes home, sometimes of dinner 
and sometimes of nothing at all.” 

“Do you like to fight f ” Marieken inquired. 


48 


SOPHIE RETURNS 


49 


Hendrick looked puzzled. 

“If Germany goes to war, we must fight,’ ’ he 
replied, and then added in a sing-song voice as if 
he were reciting a lesson, “This is a good and 
just war, and the Imperial German Government 
was forced into it.” 

Marieken looked at him pityingly, but she fin- 
ished her bandaging in silence and returned to the 
window. 

Hendrick lumbered out to the barn. 

The scene through the window was not a cheer- 
ful one ; she sighed wearily, and fell to watching a 
solitary figure that was coming up the road. He 
was walking quickly, and by the set of his shoul- 
ders and the way he held his head she recognized 
him as Lieutenant Teutch. 

Just as he passed a tumbled-down cottage that 
stood by the road, a half-starved, forlorn, yellow 
dog ran out to him. 

Marieken closed her eyes to avoid seeing the 
kick that after six months’ experience she felt sure 
would follow, but when she opened them again 
Lieutenant Teutch was patting the dog’s head af- 


50 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


fectionately. She watched in surprise as he took 
out something from his pocket and gave it to him 
to eat. 

4 ‘For a German , ’ ’ she said to herself, “you are 
almost nice.” 

A voice in the courtyard interrupted further 
musing, and she hurried out to see what was the 
matter. One glance made her open the door and 
go out, regardless of the rain. 

An old man with a gaudy-colored quilt over his 
head and trailing in the mud behind him, was the 
center of a group of jeering soldiers. 

It was Jacques, the village carpenter. Some of 
the men were pelting him with stones. Marieken 
descended into the midst of the group like a little 
fury. 

“Fritz, Hans, and you, Hendrick, shame on you 
to hit an old man! Go along this instant, or I 
will make you very sorry.” 

The men looked up ; several arms dropped and 
there was a general move toward the barn. 

Two or three, however, stood their ground, and 
Carl, a big clumsy, brutal creature, laughed at her 


SOPHIE RETURNS 


51 


and hit old J acques a stunning blow with the palm 
of his hand, that sent him into the mud. 

For the first time since the war, Marieken lost 
her temper. Her calm self-control gave way and 
she forgot her careful plans for the future. 

With eyes flashing she flew at the big German 
and beat his face with her clinched fists. 

“You coward, you great bully, you dog of a 
German,’ ’ she cried furiously. 

It is impossible to say just what might have 
happened. Carl had no more respect for a little 
girl than he had for an old man, and the chances 
are Marieken would have found herself beside 
Jacques in the mud had not Lieutenant Teutch 
come around the corner at that moment. 

The soldiers came to attention at once and sa- 
luted. 

Lieutenant Teutch did not ask an> questions. 
He uttered a few low commands, and they slunk 
off to the barn. 

Marieken turned and waited. All Belgium had 
learned to their cost the penalty for striking a 
German soldier. 


52 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Lieutenant Teutch looked at her, a queer ex- 
pression in his eyes, but he did not speak ; instead 
he bowed ceremoniously and went into the Inn. 

Marieken hurried to Jacques; the blow had 
stunned him, but he was slowly regaining con- 
sciousness. She helped him to his feet and led 
him gently, bearing most of his weight on her own 
shoulders, to his cottage. 

“Why did you come? Did you want me?” she 
asked, as they paused to rest. 

Jacques nodded. 

“Sophie has returned,” he whispered. “She 
came in last night ; she got past the sentry and she 
is in my attic. She is cold and tired for she has 
walked for days, but she brings news. I wanted 
you to hear.” 

Marieken laid a finger on his lips for a sentry 
was passing them on the road, but she quickened 
her pace ; they did not speak again until they were 
in Jacques’ cottage. 

Sophie was Jacques ’ eldest daughter. Her hus- 
band and son were both in the army and she had 
left the village at the first order to evacuate. 


SOPHIE RETURNS 


53 


When Marieken climbed to the attic with Jacques, 
she was lying on a pile of straw in one corner, 
and she looked wan and tired ; her hair, that Ma- 
rieken remembered as chestnut color, was gray. 
Beside her, cuddled close for the warmth, was a 
little boy. 

“Albert!” Marieken exclaimed joyfully. “My 
little Albert!” 

The baby opened his eyes and tried to smile. 
She took him up in her arms and held him tight. 

“I knew you would be glad,” Sophie said hap- 
pily. “I promised Jeanneken to bring him to 
you. ’ 9 

Marieken looked up, fear in her eyes. 

“WTiere is Jeanneken?” she asked. “She is 
not—?” 

“No, no, dear, she is well, I know,” Sophie has- 
tened to assure her, “or at least she was when I 
last saw her, many months ago.” 

“Tell me everything,” Marieken begged, “if 
you are not too tired.” 

Sophie shook her head. 

“I am not tired,” she said, “but there is little 


54 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


to tell. Jeanneken went with us, as you remem- 
ber, carrying baby Albert ; after days on the road, 
with very little food, she gave up. I am strong so 
I took him. Later when we came to a town and 
the people were good to us, I kept him with me. 
Jeanneken had Josef with her. Then the Ger- 
mans came, and we had to go again. I do not 
know what became of Jeanneken; there was no 
time to find her when the order came ; we were in 
different parts of the town, so I left with Albert.’ ’ 

“Go on, go on,” old Jacques prompted from his 
seat in the corner. “Tell her about the English.” 

“There was much fighting for days; they bom- 
barded the town and shells burst all around us ; we 
had to sleep on the ground under haystacks when 
we were lucky enough to find them. Then, one day 
as we were walking along the road, we saw sol- 
diers coming; we hid, thinking they were Ger- 
mans, but they were the English. They stopped 
and gave us food; one could speak French and he 
told us news. Everywhere, he said, the English 
and the French and our Belgians were winning,” 
— her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, he was a kind 


SOPHIE RETURNS 


55 


man, that Englishman; he patted little Albert’s 
cheek and told him some day he could have the 
Kaiser’s sword to play with.” 

Marieken clapped her hands delightedly. 

“I knew it, I knew it; soon the good God will 
sond the brave Englishmen to Zandre, and I, Ma- 
rieken, can box the Herr General’s ears and tweak 
his nose,” she exclaimed joyfully. 

‘ 4 Gently, gently,” old Jacques cautioned; “the 
English are not here yet, my little fighting cock; 
be careful.” 

Marieken sighed. 

“No, you are right, Papa Jacques; I can wait. 
In the meantime there is the Herr General’s din- 
ner.” 

She kissed Sophie tenderly and put the sleeping 
Albert back in her arms. After a promise to come 
back the next day, and to stop in and tell the Cure 
the news, she left them. 

All the way home she sang snatches of songs. 
The rain had stopped and a pink cloud in the west 
heralded the sunset. 

Lieutenant Teutch was sitting before the stove, 


56 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

smoking, when Marieken entered the kitchen. He 
stood up when he saw her. 

“I am sorry, Fraulein, that my men acted as 
they did this afternoon,” he said politely. 

Marieken was busy hanging up her wet cloak 
and she barely noticed him. 

“It was nothing, Herr Lieutenant , ’ 9 she said 
with a shrug of her shoulders, and took down a 
bowl from the shelf. 

Lieutenant Teutch watched her for a while in 
silence. 

“Don’t you ever get tired?” he asked finally. 

Marieken laughed. 

“Not of work,” she replied, “but of other 
things — yes . 7 9 

“The General tells me your mother is ill up- 
stairs,” he said after another pause. 

“My mother has lost her mind, Herr Lieuten- 
ant,” Marieken replied quietly. 

“Oh, I am so sorry for that, if there is anything 
we can do — 77 the Lieutenant began, but she in- 
terrupted. 

“Can you bring back my father whom you 


SOPHIE RETURNS 57 

killed, or my brother whom you are trying to 
kill ? ’ ’ she asked angrily. 

Lieutenant Teutch shook his head and went 
over to the window. 

“No, Fraulein, that they cannot do,” he said 
sadly. 

Marieken was a little ashamed of her ungra- 
cious reply. After all, this man was trying to be 
as kind as he could. She made up her mind that 
the next question he asked she would take pains 
in answering politely, but Lieutenant Teutch did 
not ask any more questions; he stood looking 
moodily down the road. 

Marieken began to feel uncomfortable. She 
finished peeling the potatoes for dinner and went 
over and stood beside him at the window. 

“To-morrow will be a beautiful day, Herr 
Lieutenant,” she said softly. Lieutenant Teutch 
looked down at her, but his reply was cut short by 
a sudden commotion in the barnyard. 

Carl was trying to lead one of the horses to 
drink, and for some reason the animal was resist- 
ing his efforts. He pulled and yanked for a min- 


58 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


ute or so and then, his ugly temper getting the 
better of him, he kicked the horse and beat him 
brutally over the head with a heavy stick he was 
carrying. 

Marieken held her breath. The powerful horse 
reared to his hind legs. There was a spatter of 
mud and dirt, and then the sight of Carl lying on 
the ground, an ugly gash in his forehead, the horse 
rolling frantically on top of him. 

Marieken looked at her companion, his face had 
gone white, and then an angry red mounted to his 
temples. He brought his fist down on the window 
ledge. 

“ You big hulking brute, you ; it serves you jolly 
well right !” he exclaimed. 

Marieken jumped as though she had been shot ; 
a stifled exclamation broke from her. 

Lieutenant Teutch had spoken in English, and 
though she could not make out a word that he had 
said, a great light of understanding shone in her 
eyes as she turned and faced him. 


CHAPTER V 


A NIGHT ALARM 

^NGLISH!” The word, spoken with a 
ri . wealth of relief, joy and awe, escaped 

^ her. 

Lieutenant Teutch clapped his hand over her 
mouth and looked quickly behind him. 

“Marieken,” he said in French, “you must 
never even think that word again, do you under- 
stand ?” 

Marieken had recovered her self-possession. 

“Yes, I understand,” she said proudly, “of 
course I understand. Do you think when I waited 
so long for you to come that I will do anything 
foolish? Watch, you will see.” 

Without another word they went out to the as- 
sistance of Carl. 

He was badly hurt, and while Marieken did what 

59 


60 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

she could for him Lieutenant Teutch went off to 
find the Doctor. 

That night the work was hurried through. The 
kitchen was locked up at an early hour, and 
Marieken, carrying her lamp, made an extra noise 
as she went upstairs. Hendrick, who was on 
sentry duty, noticed it and said to himself, “Poor 
child, she is tired.’ ’ He would have been a sur- 
prised boy had he seen her five minutes later creep- 
ing back down the stairs, and stealthily groping 
her way to the end of the cellar. 

She worked with a feverish energy at her dig- 
ging, for the long-hoped-for time was in sight, and 
she did not want to be found unprepared. 

It was after eleven o ’clock when her tired, ach- 
ing, little back gave out. As she felt her way 
back to the stairs she was conscious of a loud 
rapping above her. 

She turned cold with fear and her head whirled. 
Her first thought was that the sentry had heard 
her, but after a second her reason asserted itself 
and she realized that if that were the case he 
wouldn’t make so much noise about it. By the 


A NIGHT ALARM 61 

time she had reached the stairs some of her ter- 
ror had left her, and she groped her way carefully 
to the kitchen door and listened. 

The rapping came from the front of the house. 
As she waited it stopped, and she heard a voice 
say, 

“An important message just received for the 
Herr General.” 

Without loss of time she opened the door, 
listened an instant and then ran hurriedly up the 
ladder to the attic. 

Something was about to happen, and she knew 
that if she were wanted she had better be found 
quite naturally in her own bed. 

She snuggled close to her mother and waited 
breathlessly. Footsteps that she could not locate, 
and shouted commands that she could not under- 
stand, broke the silence. 

At last she heard some one in the kitchen be- 
low; perhaps the General had sent Fritz to wake 
her. She was undecided what to do when she 
heard some one steathily climbing up the ladder. 

She crawled to the opening and looked down. 


62 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Who is it!” she demanded. 

A whisper, hardly audible, answered in French. 

“ Don’t he frightened, it is I.” 

In the pitch dark Marieken felt a big hand close 
over hers and knew that it belonged to Lieutenant 
Teutch. 

“What do you want me to do?” she asked. 
“Have they found you out?” 

“No, worse than that. Listen to me, Marie- 
ken,” he spoke hurriedly, “there is no time to ex- 
plain. The General has just received orders to 
send out detachments ; there is to be a tremendous 
surprise attack at dawn on our trenches,” — Marie- 
ken knew instinctively that he meant the English 
trenches. “We leave at once. I cannot get 
through the lines in time to warn them. Here are 
the plans. Are there any boys left in the village 
who will risk taking them through?” 

Marieken *s small hand gripped the larger one 
excitedly, but her voice was quite steady as she 
answered. 

“Yes, I know of one. Give me the letter and 
I’ll take it to him. Tell me how to go.” 


A NIGHT ALARM 


63 


“Out of the village, by the main road, through 
the woods to the right until you come to the river. 
Tell him to follow the stone wall that skirts the 
woods so he won’t get lost, over the pontoon 
bridge. ’ ’ 

“The sentry?” Marieken whispered interro- 
gatively. 

“I’ll give you the watchword for to-night. 
Turn sharp to your right after that until you 
come to a farm house.” 

“The Trichs farm,” Marieken nodded, “I 
know; go on.” 

“Give it a wide berth; there’s a gun in the cor- 
ner of the barn yard ; the Boches ’ trenches are on 
the left; keep well to the right, you’ll come to a 
brook and a very small wood, cut through them 
and you will be abreast of our line.” He handed 
her a folded slip of paper. 

“Tell him to get this over the parapet some- 
where,” he sighed heavily. “If he doesn’t suc- 
ceed they’ll be murdered like rats. The pass- 
word is Potsdam.” 


64 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

“Then your line is just outside of Bontige?” 
Marieken said. 

“ Yes.” 

“Then I know. Does the General leave too?” 

Lieutenant Teutch laughed grimly. 

“Oh, yes; he wants to be there at the surrender, 
he says; he will watch from a safe distance.” 

Marieken breathed with relief. 

“Then I can leave without being missed,” she 
said, more to herself than to the Lieutenant. “I 
promise you the letter will be delivered.” Her 
voice trembled and Lieutenant Teutch put his arm 
around her. 

“Good-by,” he said, “please God it will.” 

“Good-by.” Marieken kissed his hand timidly, 
and she added hurriedly, “If you come back re- 
member that there is always a safe place to hide 
in Zandre, and always food for the English.” 

“Good enough,” the Lieutenant laughed. He 
was a little embarrassed and very much touched. 
“I’ll remember. Good luck,” and he was gone. 

Marieken sat very still and wasted several pre- 


A NIGHT ALARM 65 

cious minutes thinking, then she went to the box 
in the corner and took out a pair of shoes. In 
the days of peace they had been her delight, and 
she had taken special care of them. Now they 
were to be put to the test ; sabots were too clumsy 
for such a perilous journey. 

With her finger nail she loosened the inside sole 
of one of them and tore it almost out; then she 
flattened the letter — it was a small one — and 
slipped it in between the two soles. 

She pulled the shoe on; it was lumpy, but she 
thought she could wear it. 

From a pile of clothes she selected a dark blue 
smock that had belonged to Josef, and a short 
pair of trousers. She put them on swiftly, twisted 
her hair up and tucked it under a cap that she 
pulled down well over her eyes. 

She had dreamed and planned so often of just 
such a venture that her mind worked methodically. 
She had discarded the Lieutenant’s directions as 
too risky; she knew the country well and she 
thought that by taking a route across fields she 


66 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

would be able to make Bontige without meeting 
with any sentries ; common sense warned her that 
even with the password a Belgian boy, traveling 
forbidden roads in the dead of night, would be 
held and questioned. As a last precaution she 
tied up a small bundle of miscellaneous things in a 
bandanna handkerchief, for if the worse came to 
the worse and she was discovered, she meant to 
pose as a wandering refugee. 

Her preparations completed, she knelt down be- 
side her mother and kissed her tenderly. 

Then, without giving her courage a chance to 
flag, she stole softly down the ladder. 

There was a great noise of confusion outside and 
she hoped to escape under cover of it, but as she 
entered the kitchen by one door, Fritz with a can- 
dle in his hand came in through another. 

There was not a second to be lost. Marieken 
ran to the big door that led to the yard and 
opened and closed it hastily. A cold blast of air 
whirled into the kitchen, and, as she had hoped, 
blew out the candle. She heard Fritz swear un- 
der his breath. 


A NIGHT ALARM 


67 


“What is it you want, Fritz f ” she called sleep- 
ily, 4 4 and what is all this fuss about ! I was sound 
asleep and I thought the world was coming to an 
end.” 

4 4 Oh, it's you, is it? A curse on this candle,” 
Fritz growled. 4 4 The General sent me to tell you 
that we are going off at once and that there may 
be fighting, and for you to put your eggs in a 
safe place.” 

4 4 Is that all,” Marieken replied crossly. 
4 4 Well, tell him I will, and now go away and let 
me go back to bed.” 

She heard Fritz laugh in the darkness, and the 
grateful sound of the door swinging to. 

She waited for a little until her eyes became 
used to the darkness and her ears to the various 
sounds, then she slipped quietly across the room, 
opened the door softly, and sv out into the night. 


CHAPTER VI 

HOW THE LETTER WAS DELIVERED 

IGHTS flashed, and shouts from the men 
broke the stillness. 



A Marieken crept close to the house until 

she came to the corner. No one was in sight in 
the direction of the outhouses, so that for the 
first few hundred yards her way was safe. 

It is said that war sharpens the wits and makes 
heroes or cowards of us all. There is no room for 
the medium folk. It was true, at least in the case 
of Marieken. Her quick little brain had grasped 
the importance of her errand, and the necessity of 
delivering that letter to the English trenches 
crowded out all thoughts of personal fear. 

Once free of the immediate vicinity of the Inn, 
she remembered that Sophie had come through 
the fields from the south and escaped the sentry, so 
instead of taking to the main road she cut across 


68 


HOW THE LETTER WAS DELIVERED 69 

an orchard and was soon lost in a maze of shell 
holes and mud. The gaunt, twisted tree trunks, 
stripped of all their branches, loomed black and 
threatening under the pale light of the stars. 

To reach the wood that Lieutenant Teutch had 
directed, Marieken had to cross the main road, 
but instead of crossing it in the village, where 
the guards were many, she chose a place farther 
along. It would take more time, but she quick- 
ened her steps to make up for the delay. 

Nothing but an occasional hare, or the breaking 
of a twig, disturbed her, and she was growing 
accustomed to the darkness. Over toward the 
north the guns kept up a low grumbling roar. 

Marieken had once known every foot of the 
country about her, but now old landmarks had 
given place to shell holes, and all that was left of 
some of the fences were a few scattered stones, 
so that she was a little confused and reached the 
road before she realized it. 

As she stopped to get her bearings she heard the 
thud, thud of boots not twenty feet from her ; the 
sentry was coming. Without waiting for a sec- 


7a 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


ond she threw herself flat on the ground and 
rolled into a ditch in the shadow of a hedge. 

The sentry passed, and the sound of his foot- 
steps grew faint. Marieken jumped up. The 
ditch had been half full of water and not the most 
comfortable of hidingplaces, but the cold water 
angered rather than depressed her, and she darted 
across the road, determined that she would not be 
taken unaware again. 

Once in the woods she followed the Lieutenant ’s 
directions and went straight toward the noise of 
the guns. She was just a little bit tired, for 
progress was slow and the ruts and mud of the 
woods, with the occasional fallen trees that made 
her stumble, made it impossible to hurry. The 
cold water from the ditch had chilled her, but her 
spirit never flagged, and her mind was kept busy 
planning a way to elude the sentry at the bridge. 

“If I could swim,” she thought to herself sadly, 
but was immediately cheered by the realization 
that even if she could it would hardly be sensible 
to attempt a very swift river in the middle of win- 
ter. _ 


HOW THE LETTER WAS DELIVERED 71 


When she reached the edge of the wood the 
noise of the guns, and the rattle of heavy motors 
made her stop and listen. 

Whatever she was going to do must be done 
quickly. She was on the bank of the river, not a 
stone’s throw from the bridge. She crouched 
down and waited for a noise that she had learned 
to know caught her attention. It was the clatter 
of horses’ hoofs, and the even gait of a detachment 
of German cavalry ; she hid behind a stump. They 
came nearer on the road directly beneath her ; she 
could almost feel the hot breath of the horses, and 
some of the men’s voices came up to her, gruff and 
sullen. They were above the bridge and were 
apparently going on to a farther position behind 
their lines. 

Marieken waited until they were past and 
slipped to the bank of the river under the noise 
of the horses ’ hoofs. 

There were two sentries on the bridge ; she could 
see them as they walked mechanically back and 
forth, and for a minute her heart sank as she 
realized that she must pass them. 


72 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

Then a sudden idea came to her. The bridge 
was narrow, and to cross it was only a matter of 
a minute if she could only attract the sentries, at- 
tention farther up the bank. 

A big charred piece of log caught her eye. It 
was heavy and stuck fast in the ground, but by 
pulling and pushing she loosened it and sent it 
rolling down the bank. It made a loud splash as it 
reached the water. 

Marieken waited to hear it and then darted 
across the road. She laid down flat in the mud 
and crawled cautiously along. 

The sentries did exactly what she had expected 
them to do. They both hurried from their places 
and came to investigate the splash. 

Marieken wriggled to the bridge and was across 
it before they returned. 

Once on the other side she paused for breath, 
but not for long; the most perilous part of her 
journey was ahead, and if the letter was not de- 
livered before dawn it would be too late. The lit- ' 
tie light that the sky gave was rapidly growing 
less as the stars disappeared. A cold sharp wind 


HOW THE LETTER WAS DELIVERED 73 

blew up with a horrible smell that made Marieken 
shudder. 

She crawled along on her hands and knees until 
she was far out of sight of the bridge, and then, 
after listening intently, she got up and ran. A 
sudden terror of being lost in that strange and 
terrible spot took possession of her. 

The violent exercise made the blood race through 
her veins and warmed her chilled little body. 
After a few minutes her fear left her and she 
was able to think clearly again. 

It was too dark to distinguish anything. 

The guns were roaring constantly, but most of 
the shells exploded so far away that the sudden 
light did not help. 

She knew she must be somewhere near the 
Trichs farm, but she did not dare to move for fear 
of taking the wrong direction. 

She sat down in a muddy shell hole to wait, and 
tried staring hard in every direction, but the inky 
darkness that precedes the dawn blotted out the 
shapes of even the nearest objects. 

The minutes wore on; Marieken felt the letter 


74 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

in the sole of her shoe, and trembled. Then she 
fell to her knees. 

“Papa, Papa, show me the way, I am fright- 
ened,’ J she cried. 

As if in answer to her prayer a sudden flare of 
blue-green light, heralded by a hideous, screech- 
ing noise, illuminated the country for a full sec- 
ond. 

But it was long enough for Marieken to see the 
farm on one side, and to the right the line of Eng- 
lish trenches. She crawled hurriedly out of her 
hole and made toward them. The shells whizzed 
over her head, but she stared resolutely ahead in 
the darkness, afraid to close her eyes less she lose 
the direction. 

When she had crawled for about five hundred 
yards she could distinguish voices, and she stopped 
suddenly to listen. 

“Wish something would happen; I’m no end 
sick of this waiting,” a voice unlike any she had 
ever heard said. 

‘ ‘ Old Fritz is keeping quiet to-night, isn ’t he; 
maybe he’s planning a bit of a surprise.” The 



“She threw the letter over the top of the parapet’ ’ 

Page 75 





I 



HOW THE LETTER WAS DELIVERED 77 


answer came again in that strange tongue and 
in the strange voice. 

Marieken knew they were talking English. 
She put her hand out and felt a soft damp some- 
thing that she knew was a sand bag. Her task was 
done. She took off her shoe; it was caked with 
mud, and her fingers were so numb with the cold 
that she could hardly undo the knots in the laces, 
but at last she held the letter in her hand. For 
a minute the temptation to call out to the men that 
she was there, and to receive the warm care that 
she knew they would give her, made her hesitate, 
but only for a minute. The face of her mother in 
the attic at the Inn and the work in the cellar that 
was almost completed made her pull on the shoe 
again and straighten her shoulders. She threw 
the letter over the top of the parapet and crawled 
hurrriedly away again back over No Man’s Land. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 

I T was dawn when Marieken, weary and be- 
draggled, reached home. She entered the 
house cautiously and climbed up the ladder 
to her room. 

After taking off the wet clothes and hiding 
them, she snuggled down beside her mother who 
was sleeping as peacefully as a child. 

The warmth and security made her heart stop 
thumping. Her tired little brain relaxed and she 
was soon sound asleep. 

When she awoke it was two o’clock in the after- 
noon. A pale yellow sun was shining dismally 
from its setting of sullen gray clouds, and there 
was an unnatural stillness in the courtyard. 

Marieken ’s first thought was that she was hun- 
gry, and then the events of the night before 
crowded into her mind. 


78 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 79 


Her mother moved restlessly on the mattress 
beside her. 

‘ ‘ Poor little Mama, you are hungry too,” 
Marieken laughed, a little tremble in her voice; 
“but I will bring you something right away. I 
did not know I would sleep so long. ’ ’ 

She slipped into the black smock and sabots 
and hurried to the kitchen. The house seemed 
deserted. She made a fire in the stove and set 
about the work for the day as if there had been 
no strange trip through the blackness to No Man’s 
Land. 

By the time she had straightened up the rooms 
— no small task — she sat down before the kitchen 
stove to think. 

The heavy rumble of the guns seemed to come 
nearer as she listened. 

“Lieutenant Teutch will come again,” she said 
to herself, “and I promised him that there would 
always be plenty of food for the English. If that 
is so, I mustn’t sit here just thinking; there is 
work to be done.” 

She got up slowly, for she was still very stiff 


80 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


and tired, and walked to the center table. A ter- 
rific explosion that sounded as if it must have 
been just in the courtyard made her jump. It 
was followed by another and another. 

Marieken ran to the window. The heavy cloud 
of smoke that always hung in the sky to the north 
seemed to be right on the edge of the village. 

The house shook at each new report. 

Marieken stood still, uncertain what to do. As 
she looked down the road she saw the Cure, almost 
dragging Mere Marie, coming toward the Inn. 
She ran to the door and opened it. 

“My child, you are safe, what a blessing ,’ 7 
Father Dacklin called to her. “I came this 
morning to see you and you were not 
here.” 

Marieken was tempted to tell where she had 
been, but in war times it is unfair to share a dan- 
gerous secret with any one, so she turned her 
attention to Mere Marie instead. 

The old woman was screaming and trying to 
break away from the Cure. 

“Come, come, you musn’t act like this,” Marie- 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 81 

ken coaxed, “the English are coming in a little 
while; we will all be safe; don’t cry.” 

“Hide me, hide me,” Mere Marie begged. 
i ‘ The guns have come again. ’ ’ 

Father Dacklin looked inquiringly at Marieken. 

“Is your cellar dry?” he asked. 

Marieken nodded. 

“Not very, but it is safe , 9 9 she said. ‘ ‘ Take her 
down there quickly ; she will not hear the guns so 
plainly. I must go to my mother.” 

Another explosion, nearer than the last, deaf- 
ened them for a minute. 

When it stopped, Marieken pointed to the 
woods ; they were ablaze. 

The sight seemed to steady her nerves and she 
shrugged her shoulders with characteristic calm. 

“Hurry,” she said, pointing to the cellar door. 

She ran up to the attic and found her mother 
gazing stupidly out of the window. She was too 
weak to protest and Marieken had little trouble 
in getting her to the cellar. 

The air was damp and cold. The old Cure was 
shivering as he tried to quiet Mere Marie. 


82 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Marieken had just time to seat her mother on an 
old wine barrel before a loud clattering and cries 
from above made her hurry back to the kitchen. 
She found Sophie, with Albert in her arms, and 
some of the other villagers. 

“Marieken, Marieken, help us,” Sophie cried 
distractedly. 

Marieken hurried them into the cellar. On the 
way down she asked, “Where is Papa Jacques?” 

Sophie shuddered. “I don’t know; he would 
not come with me, though I begged. He said he 
must go out to welcome the English, ’ ’ she replied 
hysterically. “Oh, he will be killed, I know,” she 
sobbed. 

Marieken stopped on the bottom rung of the 
ladder, and then quite calmly she boxed Sophie’s 
ears. It was not a very strong blow, for there 
was little strength in her arms, but it acted as a 
tonic to the frightened girl. 

She pulled herself together and her hand 
stopped trembling. 

“You are right, Marieken; I am a great coward 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 83 


and no Belgian. I will be brave, I promise/ ’ she 
said slowly. 

“Then do as I tell you.’’ 

Marieken took the laughing Albert from her 
and gave him to her mother. Madame De Bruin 
seemed to understand what was expected of her 
and cradled him gently in her arms, then Marie- 
ken turned to Father Dacklin. 

“Wait here for us,” she whispered, and taking 
Sophie by the hand she lead the way back to the 
kitchen. 

The roar of the guns was growing more intense 
and screeching shells fell perilously near the little 
village. 

Marieken looked out of the kitchen door and 
motioned Sophie to be quiet. There was no one 
in the courtyard, and the few soldiers who were 
on duty on the main road were hurrying to obey 
the shouted commands of the officer of the day. 

Marieken opened the door and darted across 
the courtyard, following by Sophie. She passed 
the barn and hurried to the dairy, a little one- 


84 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

room stone building with a thatched roof, that 
was a few feet beyond. 

The Inn was built in the shape of an L and all 
the out-buildings were connected by low stone 
walls. The dairy was at one end of the L. 

In the days of prosperity, before the war, it had 
been a delightful room. Shining, spotless milk 
pails had stood neatly on the shelves, and there 
had always been the clean smell of sweet butter 
and milk, but with the coming of the Germans, 
who demanded the barn for sleeping quarters, the 
dairy had been converted into a cow shed for the 
two cows that remained after the preemptory or- 
ders of the Imperial German Commisariat Depart- 
ment. 

Now, in place of the old time tidiness, the floor 
was cluttered with hay and dirt. In the corner 
the butter churn was covered with cobwebs. 

The two cows lifted their heads from the im- 
provised feed box and looked inquiringly at Marie- 
ken as she entered. She patted each one on its 
cold damp nose. 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 85 


“See, they’re not afraid,” she said, laughing, 
to Sophie. 

Sophie nodded doubtingly. She could not credit 
their stolid indifference to courage. 

“Silly beasts; they think it’s no more than 
a thunder shower,” she replied. 

Another terrific explosion shook the earth under 
their feet, and Sophie asked hurriedly. 

“What are we doing here, Marieken? Why 
don’t we go hack to the cellar?” 

For answer Marieken went to a corner of the 
room and brushed the straw away from a par- 
ticular spot on the floor. As she did it she un- 
covered a ring sunk in one of the boards. 

She tugged at it. 

“Come and help, Sophie,” she whispered. 
“This is the trap-door into the dairy cellar. 
There, now, if we both pull hard — so.” They 
pulled and the door opened up, disclosing a tiny 
ladder. Marieken ran down it. 

The air was cold, but it felt dry in comparison 
to the main cellar of the Inn. 


86 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

“ Pitch me down some hay,” she called; “that 
bundle over the butter churn.” 

Sophie hastened to obey, and the floor of the 
cellar was soon covered. 

“Now we will go back for the rest,” Marieken 
said as she came back up the ladder. 

“I didn’t know you had a cellar under your 
dairy, ’ 9 Sophie said wonderingly. i ‘ What did you 
keep down there . 9 9 

Marieken nodded wisely. 

“My papa kept it a secret,” she explained. 
“It is where he stored all his best wine and kept 
his biggest hams.” 

Sophie looked at her wonderingly. “And the 
Herr General never discovered it?” 

Marieken laughed heartily. 

“The Herr General is a stuck-up pig, who knows 
everything,” she replied, and added with a little 
chuckle. “Except what Marieken doesn’t wish 
him to know.” 

They entered the house and hurried back to the 
Cure. Mere Marie was sobbing softly now, and 
Madame De Bruin was contentedly rocking the 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 87 

baby Albert. The rest were stunned into a calm 
patience. 

The transfer from one cellar to the other was 
made cautiously. 

Father Dacklin lit a tallow candle, and Sophie 
covered the frightened woman up in the straw. 
She sat beside them while Marieken and the Cure 
went back to the Inn. 

‘ 4 What a brave little girl you are, child,’ ’ the 
old Cure said affectionately. “Surely the good 
God is sending the English as your reward.” 

Marieken nodded. She was longing to bury 
her throbbing little head on the Cure’s shoulder 
and cry, but another bursting shell, followed by 
a glaring light, made her hurry to the window. 

“My Father, look! The town hall!” she ex- 
claimed. “Our Burgomaster!” 

They ran bareheaded out of the house and down 
the road toward the blaze. Marieken soon left 
the Cure behind. 

The town hall, the little postoffice and the Burgo- 
master ’s cottage were at the other end of the vil- 
lage from the Inn. When Marieken had gone only 


88 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

half the distance she could feel the heat of the 
flames on her face. 

She slackened her pace, afraid to go on. 
Father Dacklin caught up with her. 

“ There is no use of going farther,” he said 
sadly; “no one could escape from that.” As he 
spoke a bent figure, carrying something on his 
back, came toward them. 

It was Jacques. He was staggering under the 
weight of the Burgomaster. They ran to help 
him. 

“Did you see that, my Father! A miracle, no 
less. The English guns free, they do not kill,” he 
called excitedly. 

Father Dacklin and Marieken helped carry the 
stunned Burgomaster back to the cellar, and 
Jacques explained volubly the while. 

“The shell bursts, did you hear it? A true 
marksman that gunner, straight in the middle of 
the town hall, crack go the walls, and as I told you 
a miracle, out tumbles our Burgomaster, stunned 
but safe. I, Jacques, am near the place. I pick 
him up and here we are,” he laughed, as only very 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 89 


old people can laugh, making a dry cackling noise 
in his throat. 

Sophie, at sight of his familiar figure, started 
to scold him for his foolhardiness, but old Jacques 
would not listen. 

“You talk like a child , ’ ’ he said. “I go now to 
take down the accursed German flag from our post- 
office.’ J 

“No, no, Jacques, stay here quietly with us,” 
Father Dacklin protested. 

But Jacques would have gone his own danger- 
ous way had it not been for Marieken’s practical 
intervention. 

‘ ‘ Tearing down German flags ! What old man ’s 
talk is that,” she demanded impatiently. “I tell 
you there is real work to do, come with me.” 

Jacques grumbled a little but he followed her 
out of the dairy and over to the Inn kitchen. 

Marieken lighted a candle and told him to fol- 
low her. She went through the cellar to the very 
end, and once again took out the spade from its 
hiding place. Then she moved a barrel and 
pointed to a hole in the wall. 


90 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“This cellar is only a little ways from the dairy, 
Jacques,” she explained. “See, I have started a 
tunnel, and it must be very nearly through.” 

Jacques took the spade eagerly and crawled into 
the opening. The dirt began to fly. Marieken 
took a smaller shovel and packed it down in an 
empty wine barrel. 

It was back-breaking work, but their efforts 
were soon rewarded by the sounds of the low 
voices in the dairy cellar. Jacques called and 
Father Dacklin answered him. 

It was only the matter of a few minutes after 
that Marieken saw the light from the other candle. 
As soon as the opening was large enough Jacques 
climbed through, and Father Dacklin took his 
place. 

The bombardment had grown less as they 
worked, and Marieken was afraid that the Ger- 
mans had repulsed the British attack, and that 
the General might return at any moment. She 
had heard too much military talk at the table to 
take Jacques’s cheerful assurance “that all was 
well,” as truth. 


SECRET OF THE DAIRY CELLAR 91 


Her fears were well founded, for she had barely 
pushed a barrel in front of the hole and obliterated 
the signs of their digging, when she heard the 
dreaded clatter of hoof-beats in the court. 

She raced up the ladder just in time to see Hen- 
drick covered from head to foot with mud, wide- 
eyed and disheveled, the blood pouring from one 
cheek, jump from his horse. 


CHAPTER VIII 


AN ANXIOUS EVENING 

RAULEIN, I am wounded/ ’ he mum- 



bled vacantly, as Marieken opened the 
kitchen door and he stumbled into the 


room. 


She pushed him gently into a chair and ran for 
a basin of water. As she bathed his cheek she 
questioned him. 

“Is the fight over?” 

“How do I know?” he replied weakly; “for the 
night perhaps it is, but to-morrow it must begin 
again. The English have taken our front line 
trenches, our men are retreating in disorder. ’ 9 

* ‘ Why did you come back here instead of going 
to the hospital at Voorle?” Marieken asked him 
gently. 

Hendrick shook his head hopelessly. “My 
horse brought me, I guess, I don’t remember; I 
think the English have taken Voorle.” 


92 


AN ANXIOUS EVENING 93 

“Will the General be back to-night ?” Marieken 
asked anxiously. 

“Yes, he will be here, and the men who are left; 
they are bringing a handful of prisoners. ,, He 
paused, then began again in a querulous voice. 

“Why did everything go wrong, I wonder, 
Fraulein? We were told to wait on that hill for 
the word to charge. We should have cut off the 
enemy’s retreat, but how could we, they did not 
retreat ; they came forward on the road to the rear 
of their trenches, and then we met more on the 
road. They are fools, those English, Fraulein; 
they laughed at us as we fought. To — laugh — as 
— you — fight — is — 9 9 

The warmth of the kitchen stove, and the com- 
fort of the warm water stole over Hendrick, and 
his head dropped. 

Marieken looked at him pityingly, but she was 
not through with her questioning, and she roused 
him with a little shake. 

“Were any of the officers killed?” she de- 
manded. 

He looked at her wearily. 


94 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


i i I did not see, Fraulein, Captain Hein cut some 
of his men across the face. I saw him — some day 
I — ” 

1 1 What about Lieutenant Teutch?” Marieken 
asked desperately, but this time Hendrick could 
not be roused to reply; his head fell back and he 
breathed deeply. 

Marieken left him and hurried to the dairy, 
where she told Father Dacklin all she had heard. 

“If the General returns he must not find any 
one here,” she finished. “The bombardment is 
over.” 

The poor little frightened group in the cellar 
looked at her reproachfully, but Father Dacklin 
understood. 

“Yes, Marieken is right; we must all go,” he 
said. 

They climbed wearily up the ladder, and Ma- 
rieken watched them trudge off down the road to 
their homes. 

She took her mother gently back to the attic and 
then hurried to the dairy and covered the spring 


AN ANXIOUS EVENING 95 

door carefully with straw. Then she went back 
to the kitchen and tried to get dinner. 

It was dark and raining hard when at last the 
clatter of hoofs, the thud, thud of men marching, 
and the shouted commands broke the stillness and 
heralded the return of the General. 

Marieken stood still in the center of the kitchen 
and waited. She was afraid to go near any of the 
men for fear that she would ask the question up- 
permost in her mind — news of Lieutenant Teutch, 
or show by some word or look the glee she felt at 
their defeat. 

At last Captain Hein came to her. 

“The General wishes to see you,” he growled, 
and then as he saw the sleeping form of Hendrick 
his anger broke all bounds, and he came over to 
him and struck him furiously. 

Marieken escaped through the green baize door. 
The General was sitting at the table. 

“Good evening, Herr General,” she said re- 
spectfully, and waited. 

The General looked up. 


96 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Take some of my men with you,” he said 
curtly; “ clear the cellar of all the wine casks and 
provisions. Now that the town hall is blown up 
we must use the cellar to keep those English swine 
in, until we can get rid of them in the morning. ,, 

Marieken turned to go, and the General called 
after her. 

“If you try any nonsense with those men it will 
go hard with you, do you understand ? 9 9 

Marieken looked at him. 

“Zandre is now a German village, Herr Gen- 
eral. I will not forget that I serve Germans,” 
she forced herself to say, though the words stuck 
in her throat. 

The General smiled. 1 ‘ That is right, Fraulein ; 
you are a sensible girl. After that is done, how 
about a little supper?” 

Marieken nodded. She could not trust herself 
to speak. 

With Fritz and some of the other men she set to 
work cleaning the cellar, and then stood aside 
and watched Captain Hein drive the English sol- 
diers down the ladder. Some of them he kicked, 


AN ANXIOUS EVENING 97 

others he contented himself with hurling insults 
at. 

Marieken’s cheeks flushed with rage as she 
looked at the tired, muddy handful of men; there 
were not more than a dozen of them, and several 
were badly wounded, but she clenched her hands 
and did not protest by so much as a glance at 
Captain Hein. 

She sighed with relief as he shut the door after 
the last had disappeared, and she saw that the 
guard was to watch from the kitchen and not from 
inside of the cellar. 

She was careful to prepare an extra delicious 
meal for dinner, and served the richest of wine 
with it. 

There was no difference in her manner than on 
former nights, except that she stayed a little 
longer in the dining-room than usual. 

But she heard no news of Lieutenant Teutch; 
his place at the table was ignored with the rest of 
the empty chairs. 

After the onion soup and a glass of red wine, the 
General resumed some of his usual jocularity. 


98 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Have you heard what we did to your Allies ?” 
he asked, chuckling. ‘ 4 Such a fine lot of simple- 
tons they are; easy work for a few Germans to 
handle. Do you congratulate us, little Fraulein, 
on the outcome of the day?” 

Marieken answered, innocently. “With all my 
heart, Herr General.” Hendrick’s account did 
not tally with the General ’s, and she was inclined 
to believe the former. Her congratulations were 
truly from her heart. 

Toward the end of the meal a messenger arrived 
from the telegraph station with a message for the 
General. 

Marieken busied herself with the dishes and 
stayed to hear its contents. 

The General read it and turned scowling to 
Captain Hein. 

“We do not march farther on to-morrow; we 
stay here and wait for word from General Mar- 
kert.” 

The Captain swore. 

“What are we going to do with those English 
swine in the cellar?” he demanded. “We can’t 


AN ANXIOUS EVENING 99 

send them on to the prison camp without a heavy 
escort, and now if we are to stay! — ” 

The General was silent for a moment. 

“How many are there ?” he demanded. 
“About a dozen/ ’ 
i i Are they wounded f ’ ’ 

“Only a few/’ 

“Hum.” There was a long silence. Marie- 
ken’s heart beat so hard that she was afraid the 
men would hear, but her hand was steady as she 
refilled the Captain ’s glass. 

The General looked up suddenly. 

‘ ‘ March them out of the town to-morrow morn- 
ing early, and shoot them,” he ordered curtly. 
“We can’t be bothered with them here, and we’ve 
no men to spare to send them on.” 

The officers nodded indifferently, and fell to 
eating again. 

Marieken stole softly from the room. 

Her brain was reeling and the room danced be- 
fore her eyes. She sat down on a chair and 
gripped the end of the table. Hans looked up 
from his place by the cellar door. 


100 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


‘ ‘ Tired, eh, Fraulein?” 

Marieken nodded. 

“Well, so am I, this war is a long time ending ,’ 9 
he added with a deep sigh. 

Marieken looked at him for a full minute before 
she got up. Then, 

“Want some hot soup?” she asked. “There’s 
some here in the tureen.” 

Hans took the plate greedily, and. Marieken cut 
him a generous piece of bread. 

“Have you had your dinner, or must you wait 
until the guard changes ? ’ ’ she asked carelessly. 

“Not a bite,” Hans growled, “and I am not re- 
lieved until nine o’clock.” 

He gnawed hungrily at the bread. 

‘ 6 Quite a difference this, between the slops they 
call soup at the soup kitchen,” he growled. “The 
officers have things their own way and we who 
fight, — ” he shrugged his shoulders and returned 
to his soup. 

Marieken nodded sympathetically and began to 
wash the dishes. 


CHAPTER IX 


D 


MAEIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 

0 you have to do all those dishes every 
night?” 

Hans’s voice interrupted the clatter 
of the china, as her trembling fingers rattled them 
in the big copper dish pan. 

“No, not always; Fritz helps me sometimes, 
and some of the others, but they’re all pretty tired 
to-night and I don’t want to ask them. I’ll be 
through soon.” 

Hans grunted his disapproval, but it was not 
sufficiently strong to make him offer personal as- 
sistance. 

Marieken finished the drying up in silence and 
put the things away on the shelves. She was 
thinking hard as she worked. She knew the task 
ahead of her, but how to accomplish it was still 
unsolved when she was ready to climb up the lad- 
der and go to bed. 


102 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


4 ‘ Good night / 1 Hans said sleepily as she took 
up the candle. 

“Good night,” Marieken replied, and then she 
suddenly remembered the GeneraPs tray. 

“What was I thinking of to forget,” she said 
aloud, and came back into the room. 

Hans saw her prepare the tray with hungry 
eyes. 

“Do you like the Herr General?” he demanded. 

Marieken shrugged her shoulders. 

“He is very kind to me,” she said wearily. 

The tray was ready and she picked it up. 

The General was in his room when she 
knocked. , 

He called, “Come in,” none too gently, but his 
tone changed as he saw the tray. 

“Ha, our little Fraulein never forgets,” he said 
condescendingly. 

Marieken laughed. 

“I almost forgot to-night, Herr General,” she 
said. “I was so tired and sleepy. I think I was 
frightened to-day by the guns, and then, too, I 
have been so busy cleaning house.” 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 103 


The General looked at her intently. 

“Yon are a very good worker for a child,” he 
said thoughtfully, “very good — now go to bed and 
sleep. I must have my breakfast on time, remem- 
ber.” 

‘ * Thank you, Herr General. ’ 9 Marieken did not 
have to pretend tiredness, but instead of trying to 
hide it she exaggerated it now. She yawned sev- 
eral times before she finally left the room. 

When she returned to the kitchen she found that 
Hans had left and a new guard had taken his 
place. He was a thin pale man with watery blue 
eyes, and a scared expression. He was warming 
his hands at the stove. 

Marieken looked at him inquiringly. 

“Hello,” she said cheerfully, “are you the new 
guard?” 

The man looked up and nodded. His clothes 
were muddy and he looked cold. 

Marieken went into the pantry and brought out 
some food, then she purposely left the door open. 
Most of the wine from the cellar had been put in 
that pantry. 


104 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

The man took the food ungraciously and sat 
down before the cellar door. 

Marieken picked up her candle and went up to 
the attic, but she did not go to bed. The crooked 
hollow in her mother’s arm tempted her sorely, 
but she knew that if she once closed her eyes she 
would sleep until the morning, and the morning 
would be too late. 

She sat down on the floor by the warm chimney 
place and tried to think. The only way from the 
attic to the dairy was through the kitchen, and 
that meant passing the guard. 

‘ ‘If he only drinks some of that wine,” she whis- 
pered to herself, “and goes to sleep.” But in her 
heart she knew that it was not wise to count on 
anything so simple. 

The sounds from the bam and about the house 
grew less, and the time passed. The men were 
sleepy, she knew, and would turn in early. 

She went over to the tiny window and looked 
out. It was a dreary night, and the few lights in 
the village were dimmed by the misty rain that 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 105 

was falling. She opened the window and leaned 
out, a sudden hope taking possession of her. 

The ground seemed a long way below her but 
she did not at once give up her new idea. 

In reality the attic, being directly over the 
kitchen, was not many feet from the ground, but 
it was far enough to make jumping dangerous. 

As she looked, a sentry on his rounds passed 
just beneath her, and she was able to gage the 
distance. 

“It’s my only chance,” she said desperately, 
“and Josef used to climb down from the loft in the 
stable.” She shut her eyes and made herself re- 
member how she had watched her small cousin 
crawl down the side of the barn by clinging to 
the rough stones that jutted out. 

The memory gave her confidence, and she took 
off her sabots and tied them carefully around her 
neck, then she waited until the sentry was far off 
down the road, and all the sounds from the barn 
had stopped. 

She was desperately frightened and her hands 


106 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

were ice cold, but she did not even consider turning 
back. 

Very cautiously she slipped out, feet first, and 
-let herself down slowly until she was hanging on 
by her hands; the sill as her only support. She 
felt around with one foot, but at first the rough 
wall felt as smooth as glass, then she touched 
something sharp that felt like a ledge, she wrig- 
gled a little farther toward it, and to her joy 
realized that she was touching the top of the 
pantry window. It was boarded up from the in- 
side to keep out the light and she had forgotten 
that it was there. 

The coping was quite broad and with little effort 
she climbed down to the sill and jumped lightly 
to the ground. It was soft, and the mud gave 
gently under her feet. She put on her sabots and 
stole softly to the dairy ; she paused at the door 
to make sure that no one had seen her and then 
swiftly opened it and went inside. 

The two cows paid no attention to her as she 
hunted for the ring on the floor. It was hard 
to find in the dark, but at last she felt it and 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 107 


pulled up the door. Once in the dairy cellar she 
took care to close it again before lighting her 
candle. The tunnel seemed smaller than ever, 
and the air felt cold ; for a minute she shivered. 

Not all of her splendid courage could keep her 
from being afraid of the dark. 

She gave herself a little shake, blew out the 
candle, and squirmed into the tunnel. She went as 
fast as it was possible to go, and it was not long 
before she felt the wooden side of the wine cask 
at the other end. She tried to push it, but it would 
not move. She was going to give up in despair 
when a voice that seemed as if it were right in her 
ear spoke. 

“Bli’ me, but there’s a big rat somewhere 
about,’ ’ it said, but of course Marieken could not 
understand. She tapped gently on the barrel and 
spoke in French. 

“Please, sir, push this away,” she begged. 

A muffled exclamation broke from the man on 
the other side, and she heard more talking. 

‘ ‘ That ’s a girl, or I ’ll eat my hat. ’ ’ 

“Could it be a spook, do you suppose?” 


108 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Naw, you’re dreaming.” 

She waited impatiently and then rapped harder. 

“It is I, Marieken,” she said. “Please, please 
push this away.” 

“There hit goes again, right in me neck this 
time.” 

‘ 4 Hit ’s back of that barrel ; let ’s ’a ve a look. ’ ’ 

Marieken felt the barrel move and as soon as 
there was a small opening she squirmed through. 
It was inky black in the cellar, not even the glow of 
a cigarette end pierced the darkness. It was a 
strange and uncanny pause before she found her 
candle and matches in her pocket and made a light. 

In the uncertain flame the English Tommies 
stood around and looked at their guest in wonder 
and surprise. 

“Hit’s a girl, a little girl, blast me if it hain’t,” 
a big bewildered-looking fellow said, breaking the 
dazed silence. 

“What’s up, little one?” another voice inquired. 

Marieken shook her head. 

“ Parlez-vous, Francais ?" she asked eagerly. 

A little man with a bald head nodded. 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 109 

“That means, 'Do you speak French,’ ” he said 
proudly. “Can any of you speak it?” he in- 
quired. 

“No,” came a disappointed chorus. 

Marieken looked from one to the other in per- 
plexity, she had expected to find them all either 
crying or praying, and they were laughing. She 
saw that the only way to make them understand 
was to use the sign language. 

She pointed to the tunnel, and then to her 
mouth, and pretended to eat. 

The effect was instantaneous. The men nodded 
eagerly, so she motioned them to follow. 

At first they seemed to agree, but a big red- 
headed Irish man pointed to a limp mass of khaki 
im one comer and they hesitated. 

Marieken took the candle and went over to see 
what it was. A man with imploring, dark-brown 
eyes, was groaning pitifully. 

She looked from him to the others. It seemed 
hopeless to try and make them understand. 

At last she put the candle down on the top of 
an empty barrel and took the red-haired man by 


110 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

the hand. She led him around to the other end 
of the cellar and pointed to the ladder. He shook 
his head and laughed, and they returned to the 
rest. The time was slipping away, and she knew 
she must explain their danger to them somehow. 
A half dry spot of dirt by the barrel gave her an 
inspiration. She began to draw pictures with her 
first finger. She drew a plan of the cellar first, 
then pointed to the tunnel. It was like a game 
and the men crowded eagerly around to watch. 
They understood at once. She drew the tunnel 
and then the dairy cellar, with a ladder beside it, 
then to explain that one was unguarded she drew a 
man by the inn cellar and shook her head as she 
pointed to the dairy ladder. 

The men understood. 

“She wants us to get away, bless ’er little 
’eart, ’ 9 one man said excitedly, but the red-headed 
man, whose name was Patsy, said, 

“Hush up, she drawm’ some more. ,, 

Marieken drew a picture of a sun with its rays 
sticking out on all sides, and looked anxiously to 
see if they understood. Several nods assured 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 111 


her and she pointed again to the spindly legs of 
the guard, traced his way down to the cellar, 
pointed to all the men and traced the way back to 
the ground; drew a picture of a house and a tree 
and then very dramatically pushed the red-headed 
Patsy against the wall and pretended to shoot him. 

“ ’Oly smoke! Do you think she means Fritz 
is going to just gently kill us V ’ 

“She does, me son, she does, and phwy not; 
Twill be too much trouble to take us to a prison 
camp, that’s how they’ve figured it out, and who’d 
be the wiser.” Patsy regarded the drawing 
again, he was wordless for once in his voluble life. 

The rest of the men looked at each other un- 
easily. At last one named “Alf ” said slowly, 

1 4 Looks as if she had a bit of inside dope ; guess 
we better follow ’er lead.” 

Patsy nodded and waved her ceremoniously to 
the tunnel. 

Marieken went back to the wounded soldier and 
pointed to him. Two of the men lifted him gently 
between them. 

Then she blew out the candle and led the way 


112 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


through the tunnel. When they were all safe in the 
little dairy cellar, and she had made the sick man 
as comfortable as possible in the straw, she took 
down a ham that was hanging in one corner under 
a shelf of wine bottles, and gave it to Patsy, then 
she pointed to the ladder, but something was 
worrying the Irishman. lie looked at Marieken 
and then at the tunnel. 

‘ i Wait for me a minute all of yez,” he directed, 
and plunged back into it, the candle and matches 
in one of his huge hands. 

The rest waited impatiently in the darkness. 
They heard queer scraping noises and the soft 
pad, pad that a shovel makes against the mud. 

He was back in a short time, grinning. 

“It's a foine job I made of that,” he an- 
nounced. “No one with any brains, and much 
less a stupid Fritz would ever think there was a 
tunnel there, and begad, there isn’t one, for I’ve 
closed up that end in back of the barrel.” 

He tried to show Marieken by doing the same 
thing at the opening, and she nodded her head 
excitedly and thanked him. 


MARIEKEN TO THE RESCUE 113 


Then she put her finger on her lips for silence, 
blew out the candle once more, and went softly 
up the ladder. 

She opened the door cautiously and peeked out. 
There was not a sound to break the stillness. Go- 
ing back softly, she beckoned the men to come. 

She stood aside as they crept past her in single 
file. Patsy was the last to leave. The rest had 
tried in their clumsy way to show her their appre- 
ciation by a nod of their heads or by squeezing 
her hand, but the gallant Irishman lifted her high 
in his arms and kissed her tenderly. There was a 
suspicion of dampness as his eyelashes brushed 
her thin little cheek. 

“Good-by, me little darlint, and God bless ye. 
If I live or die this night, I’ll niver forget ye.” 

Marieken did not understand what he said, but 
something of the spirit of his words touched her, 
and she gave him a grateful hug. 

She pointed toward the direction that she had 
taken the night before. 

The men nodded confidently, and were gone. 


CHAPTER X 


THE ENGLISH PRISONERS ESCAPE 

M ARIEKEN watched their shadowy 
forms until they were lost in the dark- 
ness, and tried hard to pierce the gloom 
for a last glimpse of them. She was afraid, 
deathly afraid, now that her task was accom- 
plished and they were free. 

She waited for a long time, but nothing inter- 
rupted the steady rumble of the guns, then she 
remembered the wounded man, and stole quietly 
back to the cellar again. 

She did what she could for him. When he had 
eaten a little bread and sipped a little wine, she 
cradled his head in her lap and stroked his fore- 
head until he was asleep. She dozed for a little 
herself, to awake with a frightened start. In her 
thankfulness over the prisoners ’ escape she forgot 
her own danger. 


114 


THE ENGLISH PRISONERS ESCAPE 115 


The soldier was still sleeping quietly, and she 
moved his head gently to the straw and got up. 

When she opened the trap-door she was almost 
afraid to look for she had no idea how long she 
had been dozing, hut a pale gray streak across the 
sky told her that it was just dawn, and she sat 
down between the cows and tried to think. 

She had to get back to her attic somehow, and 
in the cold light of dawn her chances seemed very 
few. She had purposely neglected to bar the 
kitchen door, but even if she got into the kitchen 
she could not escape passing the guard to reach 
her ladder. As she thought about it she heard a 
noise in the yard ; she peered cautiously out of the 
window and recognized the guard of the night be- 
fore. He was standing in the courtyard, staring 
dazedly about him. She waited anxiously and her 
heart almost stopped heating as she saw him make 
his unsteady way toward the barn. He knocked 
on the door, and after a few minutes it opened and 
he stumbled inside. 

Marieken darted across the court and into the 
kitchen. Just as she had one foot on the bottom 


116 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


rung of the ladder the green baize door across the 
room opened and she was face to face with Cap- 
tain Hein. 

“ What’s the meaning of all this noise, I want 
to know, ’ ’ he demanded gruffly. 

Marieken felt the muscles of her throat contract 
and her head swim. The end she had dreaded had 
come, but instead of feeling frightened she was 
angry. She turned to the Captain and spoke reck- 
lessly. 

“ Don’t ask me what the trouble is; all night I 
have been kept awake by the noises down here. 
At last I got dressed and came down to see, and 
now I ask you, look at that table ! Look at that 
over-turned chair and the door wide open. ’ , Cap- 
tain Hein tried to interrupt but she scolded on. 

“Of course, the cold air puts my fire out, and 
now the Herr General and you will be angry be- 
cause the rooms are chilly, but that is as nothing 
compared to all that wine ; it is the best we had, 
and it is nearly all gone,” she stopped. 

“Who was on guard ?” Captain Hein de- 
manded. 


THE ENGLISH PKISONEKS ESCAPE 117 


“How do I now,” Marieken retorted. “I 
didn’t look at him last night, except to put some 
food out for him, and this — this — ” she pointed 
to the table cluttered with the empty bottles, and 
spoke in rapid Flemish — “this is the way the un- 
grateful fellow treats me.” 

“Oh, hold your tongue, you chattering magpie, 
and go back to your room, ’ ’ Captain Hein growled 
angrily. 

Marieken turned to him furiously, “And who 
will clean all this away and rebuild the fire,” she 
demanded. i 1 The Herr General wants his break- 
fast early.” 

“Well, then, make the fire, but don’t speak 
again,” the Captain commanded, and went out to 
the barn. 

Marieken opened the door of the stove. The 
fire was not out, but she made haste to pile more 
fuel on it and then began collecting the bottles 
from the table. 

The door opened and the Captain returned, 
dragging the very sleepy guard and followed by 
Fritz and some of the other men. 


118 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


He began questioning him angrily but he re- 
ceived only inane babbling in reply. 

After a little he gave it up and sent the man 
off under arrest and turned to Marieken. 

“Get me something to eat,” he commanded, 
and sat down in a chair by the table. 

Marieken made him coffee and poached him 
some eggs, then she went to the dairy to milk one 
of the cows, so that he could have a jug of milk. 
She hurried back with her pitcher foaming, but 
not before she had carefully moved the butter 
churn directly over the telltale ring in the 
floor and saw to her satisfaction that the rain 
had obliterated all the footprints about the 
door. 

Captain Hein ate his meal in silence, and Ma- 
rieken waited — waited, with her heart throbbing 
and her eyes fastened on the green baize door, for 
the minute to come when the escape of the pris- 
oners would be discovered. 

At last Lieutenant Shultz came into the kitchen. 
He was fully dressed and armed. He sat down 
beside Captain Hein, and Marieken, without being 


THE ENGLISH PRISONERS ESCAPE 119 

told, brought him his breakfast. He looked tired 
and unhappy. Captain Hein noticed it. 

“What’s the matter,” he sneered. “Don’t you 
relish your little job.” 

“No, I don’t,” Lieutenant Shultz replied 
bluntly. 

The Captain laughed. 

“Tender feelings for our English cousins, eh?” 
he inquired. “Better forget them until the war 
is over.” 

The Lieutenant did not reply. He finished his 
coffee hurriedly and went out to the barn and gave 
some orders. Six of the men trooped in and 
Fritz opened the cellar door. Captain Hein 
leaned back in his chair in smiling anticipation. 

Marieken had to clinch her hands tight to keep 
from crying out. It seemed an eternity before 
the horrified face of Fritz appeared again at the 
door and reported in a trembling voice, 

“The prisoners are not there, sir; the cellar is 
empty.” 

Captain Hein bounded from his chair. 

“What are you saying,” he demanded. 


120 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Fritz tried to explain. 

After that events seemed to be all jumbled to- 
gether in Marieken ’s brain. 

She had a long fifteen minutes of anguish as the 
men went down to the cellar and made a thorough 
search, but Patsy had done his work well, and with 
a sigh that was almost a cry she heard Lieutenant 
Shultz say, “They must have come this way; 
there’s no other opening,” and Captain Hein 
snarled, 

“They left when the sentry was asleep, or — ” 
turning threateningly to Marieken — “the little 
spitfire let them out. We will look into it thor- 
oughly. ’ ’ 

He sent out a scouting party to search the fields 
and question the outpost sentries. Marieken had 
given the General his breakfast before they re- 
turned, and she heard them report with a beating 
heart that none of the sentries had seen or heard 
anything in the night.” She stood behind the 
General’s chair when Captain Hein reported the 
escape and trembled as he pounded the table 
with his fists and ordered the arrest of 


THE ENGLISH PRISONERS ESCAPE 121 


all the sentries. He did not even look at her, 
except when Captain Hein asked her meaningly 
if she would confirm his statement about the 
condition of the kitchen. He laid stress on the 
fact that she was up early, but the General did not 
seem to consider it important. He asked her a 
few questions which she answered gravely. 

As soon as she could, she went back to the 
kitchen and tried hard to steady herself, but the 
reaction was too strong. It seemed inevitable 
that she would be found out. She knew what to 
expect from Captain Hein if he could implicate 
her in the escape ; he would go out of his way to 
do it. All her wits seemed to desert her and she 
came very near bursting into tears. In fact, a 
dry choking sob rose to her lips and would have 
surely broken through, had not a sudden noise of 
yelling and shouting in the road sent her hurrying 
to the window. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 

A CROWD of soldiers surrounded a dispatch 
rider who was trying to make his way to 
’ the Inn. Marieken looked at him wea- 
rily. Was he bringing news of the recapture of 
the prisoners? Her heart sank as the possibility 
occurred to her. The men were questioning him 
excitedly, and she went to the front of the house 
the better to hear what was said. 

When he reached the Inn he threw himself from 
his horse and dashed past her and into the dining- 
room. The General was still at the table. The 
messenger saluted hurriedly ; he was covered with 
mud and wet through from the rain ; his voice was 
weak. 

‘ 4 Herr General, the enemy have captured the 
bridge and we have retreated to the woods and 
fortified our positions. My orders are to tell you 
to bring as many men as you can at once; the 
122 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 


123 


enemy is keeping up their fire and our losses are 
great. General Markert’s orders, sir.” He sa- 
luted again and then dropped wearily into a chair 
and started devouring a crust of bread that was 
left on one of the plates. 

The General hardly noticed him beyond an im- 
patient nod of his head. He got up and went 
outside. 

The same scene of hurried preparations that 
had followed the last alarm was repeated. 

Men and horses ran to obey the shouted com- 
mands of the officers. 

Marieken watched one group just in front of the 
Inn. It was a detachment under Captain Hein. 
The men were sullen and angry at having to go 
into action so soon again, and some of them 
growled under their breaths. 

Hendrick was in the front ranks. The ugly scar 
on his cheek and the consesuent loss of blood from 
it made him dizzy, and he would have fallen had 
he not put out his hand to steady himself. Un- 
fortunately for him the nearest thing in reach 
happened to be the Captain’s shoulder. At the 


124 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


touch of his grasp Captain Hein turned on him 
angrily and hit him with the broad side of his 
sword. 

The rest of the men protested angrily; there 
was an ugly expression in their eyes. 

Hendrick stumbled and fell heavily to the 
ground. Marieken drew a sharp breath as she 
watched, for the instant that Captain Hein turned 
his back Hendrick pointed his gun and fired ; the 
Captain fell forward on his face. Lieutenant 
Schultz heard the shot and hurried to the scene. 

The men pointed tremblingly to Hendrick, and 
the Lieutenant pulled out his revolver, but it was 
not necessary ; a tiny stream of blood ran from the 
corner of his mouth and stained the cobblestones 
of the road a dull red. Hendrick was beyond pun- 
ishment. 

Marieken, as she watched, felt a warm glow of 
relief in her heart. Captain Hein was the only 
one who had suspected her, and now she no longer 
needed to fear him. He was nothing but a hid- 
eous lump doubled up in a grotesque position 
beside the man who had shot him. 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 


125 


Slie shed a sincere tear for Hendrick; he had 
always been so young and so much kinder than the 
others. She was glad, for his sake, that he was 
dead and away from all the misery of again going 
to face the guns. 

The incident, for it was no more than that in the 
eyes of most of the men, caused a little delay. 
The bodies were removed and laid side by side in 
an empty cottage to await burial, and then the 
preparations continued. 

Marieken stayed at her place by the window 
until the last detachment was well down the road, 
then she slipped out of the house and hurried to 
Father Dacklin’s cottage. 

She had not forgotten the wounded Englishman 
in the dairy cellar, but she had not dared go to 
him. 

The Cure was up in the attic of the house, where 
he had hidden the Burgomaster, and Marieken had 
to rap several times before he came down to open 
the door. 

When he saw her, he opened his arms wide and 
she tumbled into them and sobbed her fear and 


126 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


weariness away. He did not ask any questions, 
but stroked her head gently and waited until she 
was quiet, then he led her upstairs and she told 
her story while he and the Burgomaster listened 
in wide-eyed wonder. 

“I do not know just what is the matter with 
the poor man in the cellar,” she finished; “that is 
why I have come to you. There is no one left at 
the Inn and it will be quite safe for you to go to 
him . 9 9 

The Cure nodded and got up at once. He was 
not only a minister of the church, but something 
of a doctor as well. All Zandre went to him in 
their illnesses of body as well as soul, so it was 
not surprising that he was able to relieve the rack- 
ing pains that were making the poor Englishman 
roll and moan on his straw bed. 

The man spoke a little French, and he apolo- 
gized to Marieken for not having been able to help 
her the night before. Then he asked news of his 
comrades. Marieken patted his hand and told 
him that they were safe within the English lines 
and promised that she would take care of him 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 127 

until he was well enough to follow them, or until 
the English came. 

Father Dacklin sent her back to the Inn for 
water and clean clothes, and when she returned 
with them he said: 

“Now, my child, you are tired out and need a 
rest. Go up to your room and go to bed. I will 
take care of everything for you/* 

“Will you call me at once, mon Pere, if the 
Germans return V 9 she inquired. 

“I will, and in time, so that they will not find 
you napping. Now go along.” 

Marieken was only too glad to obey. She did 
not even bother to take off her heavy sabots, but 
nestled down beside her mother and was asleep 
almost before her head touched the pillow. 

The Germans did not return that night nor the 
next, and though the guns thundered all the time 
and some of the shells fell over the village, a sense 
of relief settled over the people. Now and again 
a single messenger would ride down the main 
road to the camp beyond, but the Inn was left in 
peace. 


328 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Sophie came over and took care of Marieken; 
she brought her food up to the attic, and for a 
whole day she would not let her even sit up. She 
would have kept her there longer, but Marieken, 
her mind and body refreshed, insisted upon re- 
suming her old place. 

‘ 4 Very well, then, get up,” Sophie said in dis- 
pair, “but you will surely die.” 

Marieken laughed and drew on the sabots that 
Sophie had taken off. “I will not die for a long 
time,” she said gayly; “there is too much to do. 
The Germans will come back and perhaps bring 
more prisoners. If they do,” — she shrugged her 
shoulders — “Marieken must be there to free 
them. 9 ’ 

“Oh, but that was an exciting time,” she con- 
tinued. “Look, Sophieken. I went to bed quietly 
as usual, and I came downstairs next morning, and 
in the meanwhile all the laughing English soldiers 
have disappeared. I am a magician.” She 
laughed happily at her own jest, and kissed her 
mother warmly. 

* i Ha, little Mother, the next thing I will do with 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 129 

my magic is to find your Henri for you.” Ma- 
dame De Bruin nodded her head and smiled. 

‘ 4 Where are you going now?” Sophie asked as 
Marieken started down the ladder. 

“To the dairy to see my soldier boy. How is 
he?” 

“Oh, much better, Monsieur Le Cure is with 
him, and to-day the Burgomaster and Papa 
Jacques carried him up the stairs for a little air.” 

Marieken waited until she was all the way down 
the ladder and standing in the kitchen floor, and 
then she stamped her foot with all the old energy. 

“It is a good thing I am up,” she said indig- 
nantly. “The idea of doing anything so foolish. 
Do you want one of these snooping Germans to 
see and report to the General? A nice state of 
affairs that would be, my soldier stood up against 
a wall and shot, and the rest of us — ” she stopped 
and let the astonished Sophie picture the fate that 
lay in store for them. Then she walked resolutely 
to the dairy, and to add to her fears she found 
the trap door wide open. She went down the lad- 
der and closed it carefully behind her. 


130 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


The Burgomaster was playing chess with the 
wounded soldier. They both looked up inquir- 
ingly as their light was cut off. 

Marieken explained respectfully, for though she 
was the heroine of the village she remembered that 
it is not the proper thing to talk to your Burgo- 
master in quite the same tone that you would use 
to your cousin’s best friend. 

But although she was respectful she was firm, 
and the Burgomaster agreed with her. 

“You are right, dear child,” he said humbly. 
“We were too rash, but the blessed sight of Zan- 
dre without those German pigs to make it hateful 
with their swaggering and boasting has made us 
careless. I will leave my good friend to your care 
now, and return to Monsieur Le Cure.” 

“Will you come again to-morrow?” the Eng- 
lishman inquired wistfully. 

“Yes, without a doubt, unless — ” there was no 
need to finish the sentence. The old gentleman 
climbed laboriously up the ladder and was very 
careful to close the trap-door after him. 


THE WOUNDED SOLDIER 


131 


Marieken had lighted a candle before he left. 
Now by the sturdy yellow flame she looked at the 
soldier for a long time in silence. 

‘ t You are better, Monsieur,” she said. 

4 ‘I’m much better,” the Englishman agreed 
hastily. “In a day or two I’ll be going. You’ve 
been awfully good to me, kid,” he finished in his 
awkward French. 

“Say, tell me,” he continued, “how did you get 
along with the other boys ? Make ’em understand, 
I mean. If I’d only been awake I could have 
helped.” 

Marieken had almost forgotten the signs she 
had drawn so earnestly on that never-to-be-for- 
gotten night. Now the memory of it made her 
laugh heartily. She sprang up, took a handful of 
dirt from the tunnel, sprinkled it on the floor, and 
drew the same pictures to amuse her patient. 

He chuckled delightedly, and they fell to con- 
versing in this very primitive fashion. 

“I’ll bet this tickled Patsy,” he said a little 
later. 


132 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Marieken looked puzzled. 

“ Patsy ,’ 9 she said slowly, and then her brow 
cleared. 

“I know, the nice big man with — ” she pointed 
to her hair, and to the flame of the candle. 

Then they both laughed. They laughed so hard 
in fact that they did not hear the hurried rap- 
ping on the floor above their heads. 


CHAPTER XH 


JEANNEKEN RETURNS 

W HEN Marieken did hear it she stopped 
abruptly and put her hand over her 
companion’s mouth. 

She ran hurriedly up the ladder. Father 
Dacklin had the door open. 

“They are coming hack,” he said excitedly. 
“They are at the post office now.” 

Marieken only stopped to assure the English- 
man that she would steal in to see him as soon as 
she could and hurried to the house. All the child- 
ish, merry expression left her face, and she bent 
her shoulders as if to receive again the tiresome 
burdens. 

But the return of the Germans on this occasion 
was not as bad as it had been. There were fewer 
of them, and none of the privates were quartered 
at the Inn barn. They were sent off down the 


133 


134 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


road to the barracks at the far end of the village. 

There were several new officers, but they were 
all quiet, tired-looking men, and even the General 
forgot to jest with Marieken, or to notice the 
scanty food that she served for dinner. 

“They look like men with a great deal to think 
about,’ ’ she said as she slipped into the cellar 
to say good night to the soldier. 

“Sounds as if they were getting a bit fed up,” 
he said hopefully, but Marieken did not under- 
stand, and he went on in French. “Be sure and 
keep your ears and eyes opened,” he advised; “if 
you hear anything like the plans for an attack let 
me know ; I ’ll be able to get out of here ’most any 
time now, and we can start a little special mes- 
senger route of our own.” 

Marieken nodded and left him. 

She was careful to take the usual tray to the 
General’s room, and while she was there she 
looked hard at his table, but it was cluttered with 
maps and papers and she could make nothing out 
of them. 

The next morning she was busily washing the 


JEANNEKEN RETURNS 135 

dishes when old Jacques appeared suddenly at the 
kitchen door and beckoned to her. 

“What is it!” she whispered, keeping an eye 
on the green baize door. 

“Come with me, quick. Jeanneken is at our 
house; she came in the middle of the night, and 
Sophie is taking care of her.” 

‘ 4 J eanneken ! Is she ill ! ” Marieken exclaimed. 

Jacques shook his head. 

“No, not ill, nothing but tired and frightened. 
She has been in another attack ; the whole village 
was bombarded and she barely escaped.” 

“Is Josef with her?” Marieken asked. 

“No, she lost him somewhere, but she is not 
afraid for him, because — Oh, I forget why ; she 
talks so much, I can’t remember. Will you 
come?” 

“Yes, in a minute; you go back without me,” 
Marieken directed, and old Jacques shuffled off. 

Marieken followed as soon as she finished wash- 
ing the dishes. 

She found her cousin — just as weeks before she 
had found Sophie — lying in the straw in old 


136 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Jacques ’ attic; but there was one difference. 
Sophie *s hair had turned gray and deep wrinkles 
had made her look like an old woman, but Jeanne- 
ken was more beautiful than ever. 

Her soft hair, the color of shining flax, was still 
bound around her head in the heavy braid that 
Marieken remembered, and her eyes, through their 
mist of tears, were as blue and sparkling with life 
as they had ever been on any feast day. She was 
a little thinner, perhaps, and her face had taken 
on the look of a woman in place of the girl, but 
the change added to her beauty. 

Marieken, at sight of her, took her in her arms 
and laughed and cried with joy. 

“Jeanneken! Jeanneken! how good it is to see 
you again. I was so afraid you would never feome 
back.” 

Jeanneken looked at her little cousin tenderly. 
She had heard from Jacques the story of her 
courage, and the tale had lost nothing in the tell- 
ing. 

“I should never have gone,” she said sadly, “to 
leave you alone; it was cowardly of me.” 


JEANNEKEN RETURNS 137 

But Marieken would not listen to such talk, and 
after a few minutes of coaxing she finally made 
her speak of her adventures. 

Little Albert climbed up in her lap as she began, 
and the rest sat in silence. 

‘ 4 There is little enough to tell,” Jeanneken be- 
gan. “Sophie has told you we left one town 
and traveled to another, only to wake up in the 
night and hear the guns at our front door, and 
then off again on the road. It was on a sudden 
trip like that that I lost Josef. We met some of 
our soldiers and he ran off to talk to them. We 
were stopping for lunch on the roadway. I did 
not miss him at once, and when I did he was gone. 
I stayed behind to hunt for him, but I could not 
find nim, and the rest went on without me. I was 
half frantic.” 

Marieken interrupted. 

“Don’t worry about Josef,” she laughed; “if 
he saw the soldiers he followed them ; I know his 
trick, and the fairy tales he tells ; he is now safe in 
some camp, rest assured — the little mischief. 
And our soldiers will take good care of him. ’ * 


138 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

Jeanneken nodded happily and the cloud left 
her face. 

“Go on,” Sophie prompted. 

“Oh, what is the use,” she sighed. “We trav- 
eled for weeks, one day was like another, one town 
was like the next, everywhere the people in France 
were alike, all good to us. I have forgotten the 
name of the villages,” she hesitated; “all, that is, 
except one.” 

Marieken looked at her and pointed her finger 
as she had done so many times when they were 
children. 

“Jeanneken, you have a secret,” she accused. 
“Tell us this instant.” 

Her cousin laughed and blushed, and then a 
sad, frighted expression crossed her face. 

‘ ‘ It was at N oens, ’ ’ she said softly. 4 ‘ I reached 
there tired to death. I had been lost all day after 
Josef had gone off with the soldiers. There were 
English in the town ; soldiers, oh, so many of them. 
I went from one house to another, but there was no 
room for me. Just as I was almost fainting at the 


JEANNEKEN RETURNS 


139 


last house, and begging the old woman to take me 
in, a big Englishman came into the room and saw 
me. He asked me what we were talking about. 
Oh, but his French was funny; I had to laugh.’ ’ 

1 ‘That was impolite,” old Jacques interrupted. 
“Your English would be funnier.” 

Jeanneken agreed humbly. “You are right, 
Papa Jacques, but he did not mind; he made the 
old woman take me in, and when night came he 
gave me his bed. All the next day he was busy. 
I asked the old woman what his name was and 
she told me it was Tommy Atkins, so when he 
came in I called him that. How he did laugh, and 
so did the man with him. It was raining hard that 
day, and they had to stay inside. I shooed the 
old woman — such a stingy old thing that she was 
— away and cooked their dinner for them. We all 
ate together, such a lark as we had. You’d never 
guess with the cannons roaring so near us that 
night. I found all those nice men’s shoes and 
brushed them while they slept, and I shined up 
their buttons and brushed their coats.” 


140 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Giving an extra lick to Monsieur Tommy At- 
kins, I don’t doubt,” — old Jacques chuckled at his 
own humor. 

“Well, perhaps,” Jeanneken admitted. “On 
the next day the guns grew louder and louder. 
Tommy Atkins told me not to be afraid, that he 
would take care of me, and he did. In the night 
the whole village seemed to be in flames, all of a 
sudden. The people screamed, and, oh, I don’t 
remember the little things, only that when our 
house was struck and I felt it was all piled on top 
of me, he came and pulled me out and carried me 
away for miles down a road. When we were safe 
he put me down and said he must go back, and I 
think that is all.” 

Marieken shook her finger again. “You are 
stopping before you come to the secret,” she said 
solemnly, “and that’s not fair.” 

Jeanneken blushed a little and pretended to be 
surprised, but she would not go on. After a while, 
when Sophie and Jacques went downstairs, she 
pulled her little cousin to her. 

“Marieken! Marieken! I love that big 


JEANNEKEN RETURNS 


141 


Tommy Atkins,’ ’ she whispered, “and he loves 
me. He told me so, and he promised to find me 
after the war.” 

“But he doesn’t even know your name, does 
he?” her practical little cousin inquired. 

“No, but he will find me just the same,” Jean- 
neken replied with smiling confidence. 


CHAPTER XIII 


TOMMY ATKINS 

F OR the next few days Marieken went about 
her work singing. She spent as mnch of 
her time as it was safe with Jeanneken 
and her English soldier. 

The Cure and the Burgomaster had been told 
of Jeanneken ’s return, and they thought it best 
for her to remain hidden in old Jacques’ attic. 
If she answered to the German’s weekly roll call 
the question of how she managed to slip unseen 
into the village might lead to strengthening the 
guard, and Marieken, with an eye to the escape 
of her soldier, did not want that to happen. 

If Jeanneken had had any of the fearless cour- 
age that characterized her small cousin, it might 
have been safe for her to come to the Inn, but she 
was a timid girl, and the old Cure feared the 
treatment she might receive at the hands of the 
German officers. 


142 


TOMMY ATKINS 143 

So Jeanneken rested in her attic and dreamed 
delightful dreams of her reunion with Private 
Tommy Atkins. Meanwhile, Marieken kept her 
ears open, and every night she reported to the 
soldier. 

It was a week after the escape of the prisoners 
when something in the General ’s manner at dinner 
made her hurry through with the dishes and go 
down to the dairy cellar. 

It had been a week of such rain and sleet that 
even the rumble of the big guns were forced to 
stop, and Nature asserted herself as mistress of 
the earth once more. But with the first hint of 
the sun the bombardment began again. 

‘ ‘ Our spring drive, ’ ’ the Englishman announced 
as a shell burst near the village. He was comfort- 
ably smoking a cigarette that Marieken had pil- 
laged for him from Lieutenant Shultz’s collection, 
and the air of the cellar was blue. 

Marieken waved away the cloud of smoke just 
in front of her face and nodded, then she settled 
herself comfortably in the straw. She was great 
friends with her soldier by now. 


144 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


* ‘ Listen to me,” she commanded as he started 
to hum a little tune. 

“I have something to tell you. The Herr Gen- 
eral was very cheerful to-night. He pinched my 
cheek, noticed what he ate, and he and the rest of 
the officers drank a health to 4 our plan/ ” 

The soldier whistled. 

“ Guess they’ve got something up their sleeves, 
same as we have,” he laughed. ‘ 4 Could you hear 
any more ? ’ ’ 

“No, but I will be very sure to listen,” Ma- 
rieken replied. 

“If it’s a plan, we’ve got to find out what,” 
he went on. “I could have left here days ago but 
it’s too good a chance to do a little spy work. 
There’s one thing sure, if we are still entrenched 
in Yoorle the next objective will be Zandre, and 
that means most of the cottages will go. My 
hat!” he finished in English, “don’t I wish I were 
back and knew what was going on. ’ ’ 

Marieken nodded, though she did not under- 
stand, then she asked suddenly, 


TOMMY ATKINS 


145 


“Do you know a man in the English Army 
named Tommy Atkins f” 

The soldier threw back his head and laughed 
heartily. “Only a couple of hundred/ ’ he re- 
plied, and then a wistful expression crossed his 
face and he smoked for a few minutes in silence. 

Marieken looked surprised. 

“So many as that,” she said wonderingly. 
“Poor Jeanneken.” Then she added with a little 
laugh. 

“Do you know you have never told me your 
name,” she said. 

“Haven’t I? No, I guess I haven’t. Funny, 
isn’t it,” the soldier replied. “I got so used to 
your calling me Monsieur Le Soldat that I never 
thought. It’s Private George Hawkins, in his 
Majesty’s service. Yours to command,” he 
bowed. 

Marieken said the name over to herself, putting 
a ridiculous French accent on it, and Private 
Hawkins had hard work to conceal his mirth. 

“It’s a very nice name,” she said at last, po- 


146 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

litely, “but I wish it were Tommy Atkins in- 
stead.’ ? 

The next day dawned bright and clear, and the 
guns roared incessantly. 

The General was away early, and Marieken 
spent most of her time in old Jacques’ attic. The 
Cure was down in the cellar playing dominoes 
with Private Hawkins. 

There was a touch of spring in the air, and, 
despite the guns, there were birds in the fields and 
woods. 

Zandre was a sorry spectacle, and its tumbled- 
down cottages and muddy roads stood out piti- 
fully in the cruel sunlight, but the inhabitants 
at the first feel of its warm rays shook off their 
gloomy despair and came out of their cottages to 
gather on the road in little groups to talk. 

The German authorities noticed the change, and 
the postmaster, a taciturn man who wore thick 
lens glasses and always had bread crumbs in his 
bristly gray beard, reported to the General that 
night while he was eating his dinner. 


TOMMY ATKINS 147 

Marieken listened to the interview from be- 
hind the green baize door, and hurried down to 
the cellar to tell Private Hawkins what she had 
heard. 

“Oh, do listen! I have terrible news,” she ex- 
claimed as she climbed down the ladder. 

“The General has just ordered a house-to- 
house search for to-morrow. The postmaster saw 
some people he has never seen before, and he 
thinks they must be spies. What shall I do? 
My cousin is in hiding in old Jacques’ attic, and 
they will find her. ’ ’ 

“How old is she?” George inquired. 

“Only eighteen, and oh, so beautiful; they will 
think, of course, she is a spy and perhaps kill 
her.” 

“Steady,” — the soldier put his big hand on 
Marieken ’s trembling shoulders. “You’re not 
going to lose your courage now, are you?” 

Marieken stiffened. 

“No, I am not, only tell me what to do. I can’t 
seem to think.” 


148 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Why not bring her down here,” George sug- 
gested. “I’ll take care of her. They’re not 
likely to find us.” 

Marieken nodded. “I had thought of that,” 
she said slowly, “but how can I get her here, she 
is so frightened!” 

“Well, you’ll have to manage that somehow. 
Is it a very dark night!” 

“Yes; it will rain, I think, to-morrow by the 
look of the clouds.” 

“Good, then go and get her now. I’ll be wait- 
ing for you, ready to open the door. ” 

Marieken ’s courage returned to her as she 
slipped into the darkness and made her way 
stealthily back of the barn in the direction of old 
Jacques’ house. 

There was a cast-iron law in the village that no 
one should leave their cottages after eight o’clock 
at night. Several offenders had been caught on 
the road during the past months and severely pun- 
ished, but Marieken was used to taking risks, and 
this one seemed small in comparison to the others. 

She carefully avoided the main road and made a 


TOMMY ATKINS 


149 


wide detour, at last reaching old Jacques’ cottage 
without being seen. There was no light inside. 
The authorities had requisitioned all the candles 
months before. 

She tapped gently on the door, but got no re* 
sponse. She did not dare to make much of a noise, 
and after trying a couple of times more she gave it 
up and went around to the side. 

At one little window wads of paper were care- 
fully stuffed to keep out the cold. The glass had 
been broken long ago. It was an easy matter to 
tear out the paper and climb inside. 

It was pitch dark, and Marieken tried to get 
her bearings. The cottage only boasted one room, 
and the ladder leading to the attic was not hard 
to find. She heard old Jacques breathing heav- 
ily on his pallet bed, and moved gently so as not 
to disturb him. 

She woke Sophie gently when she reached the 
attic, and told her the news. Jeanneken awoke 
at the sound of Sophie’s muffled exclamation. 

“What is it?” she asked, sitting up. 

Marieken explained. 


150 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“ Hurry into your clothes and come,” she 
warned. “We haven ’t a minute to spare.” 

Her cousin looked at Sophie. “ Oh, don’t worry 
about me. I will tell them Baby Albert is mine 
and that I have been back a long time,” Sophie 
said. “Come, I will help you dress.” 

When she was ready Marieken led the way 
softly to the front door, and when she was sure no 
one was in sight they started. 

They had one fright on the way, the yellow dog 
that Marieken had seen Lieutenant Teutch pat, on 
that memorable day of her discovery, came out of 
the cottage and barked lustily at them. Marieken 
pulled her cousin down into the mud beside her, 
and they waited. 

No one came. The sentry was evidently used to 
the dog and probably thought he was after a rat. 

Jeanneken trembled so for the rest of the trip 
that it was with a sigh of relief that Marieken 
pushed open the dairy door and they found them- 
selves safe inside. 

A whisper came from beneath the trap-door. 
Marieken answered it and helped pull it open. 



“ *It’s you!’ they both exclaimed” 


Page 151 





















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TOMMY ATKINS 153 

There was no light, and they had to feel their 
way. 

When they were all in the little room, and the 
trap-door down, Private Hawkins lighted the 
candle and held it above his head. 

It was only the end of a candle and the flame 
was very pale and fitful. 

Marieken’s mind was worrying over the neces- 
sity of taking another one from her rapidly dimin- 
ishing store, and was not at all prepared for what 
followed. 

Jeanneken and Private George Hawkins looked 
at each other for the fraction of a minute, then 
they both exclaimed excitedly, one in French and 
the other in English. 

“It’s you.” 

“My Tommy Atkins,” said Jeanneken joyfully. 

Private George Hawkins did not say anything, 
his long arm suddenly encircled Jeanneken and 
held her tight. 

Marieken stared, stupefied at first, and then 
reached anxiously for the candle. It sputtered 
for a second and then went out. 


CHAPTER XIV 


A FULL. STOMACH MAKES A SLEEPY HEAD 

E xplanations followed in the dark. 

George told how he had searched the 
road on which he had left Jeanneken, for 
three hours the next day, without finding any 
trace of her, and how his section had been moved 
almost at once to the front. His arm tightened 
around her when he spoke of his despair, and the 
terrible dreams that had tormented him while he 
lay wounded in the cellar. 

Jeanneken was far too happy to talk sensibly. 
She babbled little foolish things and nestled her 
head on his shoulder. 

Finally Marieken could stand it no longer ; they 
had apparently forgotten her existence. 

“Do stop your talking,” she commanded, 
exasperated, “and answer me some questions/ ’ 
She turned to George. 


154 


A FULL STOMACH 155 

“Why did you tell me your name was not 
Tommy Atkins!” 

George laughed and explained that all English 
soldiers were Tommies, and that he had thought it 
so comical when Jeanneken believed that to be 
his own name that he had not corrected her. 

Marieken did not think it was funny ; she 
thought it was very silly. 

“And it might have made you lose each other 
for always,” she declared. 

“No, little cousin, that was not possible,” Jean- 
neken protested. “I told you he would find me; 
you laughed then, but I was right, wasn’t I?” 
she ended triumphantly. 

They were all too much excited to sleep, and 
as the candle was out they sat in the dark and 
talked in whispers. 

At the first streak of dawn Marieken stole back 
to the Inn. It was raining, as she predicted; a 
fine misty drizzle. 

“Just the weather to go over the top,” George 
said wistfully as he peeked through the trap-door 
for a brief moment. 


156 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“See if you can’t find out the General’s plans 
to-day,” he said to Marieken. 

She nodded, "I will. Hark, the guns sound 
nearer.” 

She stood in the courtyard and listened. 

A thud, thud of hoots mingled with the rumble. 
She motioned George to shut the door and hur- 
ried around the house to see what it was. 

“So early, Herr Postmaster?” she said, smil- 
ing to herself as she saw a squad of men marching 
down the road, with the postmaster at the head. 
She went into the house and watched the inspec- 
tion from the front window. The men halted at 
every house, and whether it was occupied or not 
made a thorough search. It took a long time, and 
the General was eating his breakfast before they 
reached the Inn. 

Marieken met them at the door. 

“What do you want?” she demanded. 

“House-to-house inspection, General’s orders,” 
the Postmaster said importantly. He had never 
led a body of men before and he was feeling the 
full dignity of his command. 


A FULL STOMACH 157 

Marieken shrugged her shoulders and stepped 
aside. 

“Very well, come in. ,, 

Five of the men entered ; their heavy shoes made 
a clattering noise in the hall. 

‘ < Who is that ? ’ ’ The General ’s voice demanded 
from the dining-room. 

Marieken explained. 

The General ’s face grew purple with rage. 
He strode out to meet the smiling Postmaster. 

“Pig, imbecile,” he roared. “What do you 
mean by letting your great clumsy brutes stumble 
in here?” 

“The inspection, Herr General,” the postmas- 
ter stuttered. 

“Inspection in my headquarters ! What do you 
expect to find f Out with you this instant ! 9 9 

“But, Herr General?” The light blue eyes be- 
hind the heavy lens looked wide with wonder. 

“Not another word,” blustered the General, 
and Marieken had to hide her head in one of the 
curtains to keep from laughing at the woe-be- 
gone retreat of the frightened men. They walked 


158 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


on tiptoe out of the house, their heads down, for 
all the world like a dog with his tail between his 
legs. 

The General returned to the dining-room and 
continued his meal, and the discussion he was hav- 
ing with some of the officers. 

Marieken listened shamelessly. 

“ I tell you it can’t fail,” the General said de- 
cidedly. 

“But what if they won’t advance that far?” 
Lieutenant Schultz inquired. 

“Bah, of course they will; give an Englishman 
rope and he will hang himself,” the General 
sneered, “or in other words give them an open 
space and they will advance as far as they can 
without regard to their objective.” 

“Fraulein, more coffee,” he called suddenly, 
breaking off in the middle of his narrative. 

Marieken stamped her foot in disappointed rage 
as she left the door and went to the stove, but 
what she heard, as she poured the steaming 
coffee into the General’s cup, made her heart 
turn over. 


A FULL STOMACH 


159 


“The plans, map and directions, ’ ’ he said casu- 
ally, “I have with me. It is not necessary for 
me to tell you the details of the campaign as yet, 
but I am glad to say that if we carry out our 
intentions, and I see no reason why we should not, 
the war will be over in a month, or less. That 
is,” — he stroked his goatee reflectively — “as far 
as General Markert’s and my part are concerned.” 
(General Von Dulk was only a lieutenant-general, 
but he liked to consider himself on an equal foot- 
ing with the all-powerful General Markert, when 
he was not in the latter’s company.) 

Marieken repeated the conversation to George 
and Jeanneken later in the morning, but she 
omitted to tell them where it was that the General 
kept the all-important paper. Common sense and 
a fine disregard for the caution of grown-ups made 
her keep it a secret. 

“I will see if I can find it to-night when I take 
up his tray,” she said. “You be ready to leave 
at midnight. ’ 9 

There was a long minute of silence as she fin- 
ished. George looked hard at Jeanneken, but if 


160 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

he expected her to cry or protest he was dis- 
appointed. 

“You must have a bundle of food,” she said 
quite calmly, breaking the silence, “and a safe 
place to hide the map.” 

George looked at her admiringly. “I say! I 
wish you could understand English, ’ 9 he said ear- 
nestly, “then I could tell you honestly how fine I 
think you are.” 

Jeanneken patted his curly head, much as she 
would have patted a child’s, and began speaking 
rapidly to her cousin, in Flemish. 

“It is not safe for him to go in that uniform,” 
she said. ‘ ‘ He could never get past the sentries. ’ 9 

“But what else can he wear?” Marieken asked. 

“A suit of old Jacques’; you go to Sophie and 
get it ; we will make him look like an old man, and 
then he will be quite safe.” 

J eanneken pushed her cousin toward the ladder 
and turned to explain to George. 

Marieken got the clothes from Sophie, though 
it was necessary to make old Jacques take part 
of them off, and returned to the dairy. 


A FULL STOMACH 


161 


The General was away most of the day, and 
the Cure came to see George. He was astonished 
to find Jeanneken there, but when he heard the 
story of Tommy Atkins he laughed merrily, and 
then very gravely gave them his blessing. 

Marieken left them discussing the details of the 
flight, and went up to sit beside her mother and 
think. The sounds of the guns made Madame De 
Bruin restless, and now and again a look of un- 
derstanding would come into her eyes. 

Marieken knew she had to face a danger greater 
than any she had faced before, for the General had 
told his officers that he kept the precious map un- 
der his pillow when he slept, and it was from there 
that she had to get it. 

When, for the first time, she realized what 
would happen to her and to them all, when the 
General woke up the next morning and found it 
missing, she almost gave up, but a plan, only half 
formed so far, in the back of her brain, gave her 
courage. 

She cooked an enormous dinner that night and 
noticed with relief that the General looked both 


162 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

hungry and sleepy, as he sat down to the table to 
eat. 

From the scraps of conversation that she heard 
she gathered that they had had a very tiring day. 

When the General yawned twice before the 
dessert, she took courage. 

She was careful to fix him a very nice tray, and 
choose a bottle of very rich wine for it. 

When it was ready she blew out the light in the 
kitchen and bolted the door. 

After listening a minute in the hall, until she 
was sure that all the officers were busy around the 
table, she stole softly up the stairs to the General ’s 
room. 

A faint flicker of light from the lamps below 
made a patch on the floor in the doorway. 

She put the tray down in its usual place and 
looked about her. She half hoped she would find 
the map spread out on the desk, but only a batch 
of white papers that looked ghostly in the dark 
cluttered the top of it. 

She looked at the bed; it was cater-cornered 
across one corner of the room ; the head board was 


A FULL STOMACH 163 

high enough to make hiding behind it compara- 
tively safe. 

Without hesitating longer she lay down on the 
floor, rolled under the bed, and wriggled to a 
standing position in the corner. 

The wait that followed was the hardest part of 
all to endure. She heard doors open and shut, 
and the boards of the floor creak. At each new 
sound she would think, 4 4 He’s coming at last,” 
only to be disappointed. 

When he did come there was no mistaking the 
heavy footsteps, and his deep voice as he called 
good night to one of the officers. 

Lieutenant Schultz carried his lamp for him, 
and Marieken felt as if they must both be able to 
see her right through the headboard of the bed. 
But after an order or two, and a little grumbling 
on the part of the General that Fritz was no longer 
alive to be his orderly, the Lieutenant left, and the 
General, after making elaborate preparations for 
the night, blew out his candle and got heavily 
into bed. 


CHAPTER XV, 


WHILE THE GENERAL SNORED 

M ARIEKEN felt the springs give under 
his weight, and for some unaccountable 
reason it frightened her. He was so 
near her that it seemed uncanny that he could be 
unaware of her presence. 

But Marieken would not have been Marieken if 
she had not been able to throw off her fears and 
keep her keen little mind alert on the task ahead. 

The General sighed loudly several times and 
rolled over before he fell asleep. 

Marieken waited until the heavy breathing had 
gone on for a long time, then to make sure that 
he was really asleep she tapped gently on the 
headboard. 

The breathing did not stop even for an instant, 
and she dropped quietly to her knees and crawled 
under the spring. She could see the sag that the 
General's body made. She lay quiet for a minute 

164 


WHILE THE GENERAL SNORED 165 


and then rolled carefully out onto the floor. She 
was so near that she could have touched the pillow 
under the General ’s head. 

She kept quiet for a long time, not daring to 
take the final step. His head seemed so heavy 
that she knew she would never be able to move it. 

After a while she got to her knees and with one 
trembling hand felt around the edge of the pil- 
low. 

Her hand closed over something hard and cold, 
she pulled it out gingerly and examined it ; it was 
the General’s gold watch. 

A sigh of annoyance escaped her, and she held 
her breath for fear the General would waken, but 
he slept on, so after waiting a minute she put 
her hand back under the pillow again. It was a 
thin little hand and did not take up much room. 
She felt everywhere, except directly under the 
General’s head, and found nothing. Then with 
a courage born of desperation she slipped her 
hand under that; it closed over a flat something. 
Just as she was going to pull it out the General 
moved, grunted, rolled over obligingly so that 


166 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

his back was to her, and started snoring con- 
tentedly. 

Marieken ’s terror gave way to relief, and she 
wanted to laugh. She pulled out her hand and 
found she was holding tight to a flat black wallet. 

She slipped it quickly into the pocket of her 
smock and crawled to the door, opened it, and 
crept downstairs as fast as she could. 

George and Jeanneken were waiting for her in 
the cellar, and she showed them the wallet 
triumphantly. 

‘ ‘ Where did you find it?” George demanded. 

‘ ‘ Under the pillow that was under the head of 
the sleeping General,” Marieken told him, and 
explained as best she could. 

George had it opened by now and was pouring 
over the map, but he could make nothing of the 
notes along the side. 

Marieken leaned over his shoulder. “That is 
Voorle,” she said, pointing, “and that means,” — 
she puckered her brow as she tried to translate 
the military terms into a French that George could 
understand. 


WHILE THE GENERAL SNORED 167 


“You must take it,” she said at last, very 
slowly. “You can get away with it before he finds 
out, and — ” 

“And you can get shot. Not much.” George 
was firm. “I tell you what to do. You copy 
this writing while I study the map, and my colonel 
can have it translated.” 

Marieken flew back to the house, up to the attic 
and returned out of breath with her note book and 
pencil that she kept hidden in the chimney chink. 
She found a clean page and copied out, as best 
she could, the notes that lined the margin of the 
map. She did not bother to try and understand 
what she wrote ; she just copied as she had copied 
German exercises at the convent. 

George studied the map over her shoulder, 
sometimes asking her a question. 

It was a long task, but at last Marieken finished 
and George folded up the map and put it care- 
fully back into the wallet. 

“Do you think you can get it back without his 
hearing you,” he asked gravely, as Marieken put 
it back in her pocket. 


168 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“I guess so,” she said bravely. “ Anyway I 
will wait till almost morning, by that time you 
will be in Voorle.” 

George tried to say something, but he could not 
think of the French for it, so he spoke in English. 

Whatever it was he said it seemed to have re- 
lieved his feelings. 

Jeanneken gave him a bundle tied in a hand- 
kerchief, and he slipped the little book in it, then 
he pulled the crazy quilt of old Jacques over his 
head and led the way slowly up the ladder. 

Marieken made sure that there was no one in 
sight, and thoughtfully waited outside while 
George said good-by to Jeanneken. 

It was a long good-by for it is hard to leave the 
girl you are very much in love with at any time, 
and doubly hard in war, when the chances of your 
seeing her again are so slight; but Jeanneken was 
woman, and Belgian enough to put her country 
before all else, and George had learned by heart 
the English rule of playing the game, so it was 
not so very long before the dairy door opened and 
they both joined Marieken. 


WHILE THE GENERAL SNORED 169 


“Go by the fields / 9 she said, pointing, “and, 
oh, please hurry.’ ’ George laughed. 

“Good-by,” he said, “but not for long. In a 
few days we will be back here to stay . 9 1 

He kissed J eanneken again and shook Marieken 
by the hand, as though she were a man and a com- 
rade. 

Just before the deep shadow of the barn hid 
him from their sight Marieken called out softly. 

“Give my love to Patsy, and find my Lieuten- 
ant Teutch.” 

George waved and nodded in reply. He made 
a queer silhouette against the darkness, in his 
flowing quilt, for the wind was blowing and the 
ends flapped crazily about him as he walked. 

The two girls watched after him for many min- 
utes, their ears strained to hear the slightest 
strange sound. 

Jeanneken shivered. 

“You will be lonely in that cellar,” her cousin 
said tenderly. “I wish I could stay, but — ” 

Jeanneken shook her head. “No, I will be all 
right. It is you that I am worried about. How 


170 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


will I know if you get the map back under the 
General’s pillow? I will die of anxiety waiting 
and wondering all night. ’ ’ 

Marieken pointed to the window across the 
court. 

“Wait here,” she said, “and I will light my 
candle for a second if I get back safely.” 

They kissed each other good night, and Marie- 
ken went back to the Inn. 

Perfect silence reigned in the house as she felt 
her way through the kitchen and up the stairs. 
She had left the General’s door open a crack, and 
even from the foot of the stairs she could hear his 
heavy breathing. 

Very softly she stole up to the door and pushed 
it open. 

The General was lying on the very edge of the 
bed, one arm hanging over the side. 

Marieken touched it as she felt for the pillow. 

She was so frightened that she very nearly 
screamed, but the General did not wake up. She 
decided that she would not try to find the pillow 
again, she took the wallet from her pocket and put 


WHILE THE GENERAL SNORED 171 


it on the floor under his hand, then as if she were 
being pursued by the entire German Army she 
fled down stairs and up to her attic. 

She sat, trembling for a little, until she remem- 
bered Jeanneken. She lighted her candle and put 
it in the window for a brief second. 

Jeanneken standing in the doorway of the dairy 
saw it and the relief made the tears come. She 
groped her way blindly to the cellar where she 
tried to stiffle her sobs by burying her head in a 
very muddy khaki coat. 

Marieken, after she had blown out the candle, 
stood looking at the black sky that was pierced by 
one tiny star just above her head. 

“Oh, Papa, Papa,” she cried wearily, “please, 
please ask the good God not to make me do any- 
thing more, I am so, so tired — ” 


\ 


CHAPTER XVI 


the English! 

A MONTH followed. A month of rainy 
days, one so exactly like the other that 
Marieken lost track of time. Nothing 
eventful happened to interrupt the monotonous 
drone of the cannons, and life seemed less excit- 
ing than it had in the peaceful times before the 
war. 

Jeanneken, hidden securely in the dairy cellar, 
with only the muddy khaki suit for company, 
dreamed and hoped the time away. 

But Marieken cooked the General’s three meals 
every day, listened to his constant boasting and 
bragging, and now and again stamped her little 
foot with exasperated impatience at the delay of 
the English. 

Now and then grave doubts of George’s safety 
kept her awake at night as she lay listening to the 

172 


THE ENGLISH! 


173 


soft ooze of the rain on the thatched roof, but by 
morning her sane reasoning dispelled her doubts, 
for she knew that if the all-important book had 
been found in his bundle, the General would have 
been the first to hear of it, and she, Marieken, 
the second. 

“But,” as she said to the Cure one day, “this 
quiet waiting is heart-breaking. Every day those 
German pigs eat up more of my supplies.” 

The Cure shook his head gravely and she went 
off to old Jacques to be cheered up. His abso- 
lute faith and enthusiasm were untiring. 

“Just wait,” he would say slyly, and always in 
a mysterious tone; “they will come, and mark my 
words it will not be very long now. Some day 
the guns will sound louder and the shells will 
burst nearer. We will all have to run to save 
ourselves, there will be flames as there were be- 
fore, but” — and here he would laugh as delight- 
edly as a child — “when they stop, those guns, 
Zandre will be again a Belgian village.” 

ThensMarieken, because she wanted to believe 
it very much, would go home singing with a light 


174 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

heart, and creep down to the dairy cellar to tell 
Jeanneken. 

Jeanneken always scoffed and called Jacques a 
simple old man. She preferred to pin her faith 
to the promises of her stalwart private George 
Hawkins. 

But for that matter they were both right, for 
one morning, just a little after sunrise, the noise 
of the guns did grow louder and the shells burst 
nearer. 

Marieken was the only one in the Inn who was 
up. The General had ordered an early breakfast, 
and she was busy in the kitchen when she heard 
the first explosion. 

She hurried to the window, but she could see 
nothing beyond the gray mist that hung low over 
the edge of the village. 

A few minutes of quiet followed, time enough to 
boil an egg, and then another explosion followed 
by another and another came. 

That was the beginning, the rest of the terrify- 
ing events followed in rapid succession. 


THE ENGLISH! 175 

The heavy fire continued for a time and deaf- 
ened every other sound. 

The General and his officers hurried downstairs 
to send out messengers. 

The officer at the telegraph station came to re- 
port the wires down. The few soldiers who were 
in camp at the far end of the village road were 
ordered out, and stood waiting at attention be- 
fore the Inn. 

No one but the General bothered with break- 
fast, the rest shouted and gave orders, conferred 
in excited whispers with one another and then one 
by one mounted their horses and rode off straight 
in the direction of the fire. 

Marieken watched them go with a smile ; it was 
a grim smile, too grim for a mouth that had only 
smiled for so brief a time as fourteen years. 

“Good-by, my German guests. I think I will 
not see you again,’ ’ she said aloud. 

The General was beside her, but fortunately did 
not hear y her words. He was too busy trying to 
adjust his helmet. 


176 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Marieken watched him curiously. By the ex- 
pression of his face and the look in his little pig 
eyes she knew that this was a surprise attack, and 
no amount of blustering on his part could convince 
her that it was not. 

Just before he mounted his horse he called to 
her, 

“We will be back in time for dinner, Fraulein. 
Be sure and have a good one ready promptly at 
six.” 

The words were hardly out of his mouth when 
a thundering of many hoofs, and the thump of 
many boots, came suddenly from just behind the 
heavy curtain of fire. The crack of rifles struck 
staccato notes in the roar of the cannon, and a 
muffled roar of human voices came back to the 
watchers on the Inn steps. 

In sight, and hurrying down the road, were 
the same little group of villagers that Marieken 
had sheltered in the last attack. She ran to meet 
them. 

“They are coming,” old Jacques announced 


THE ENGLISH! 177 

triumphantly, “but these silly women are afraid 
to wait.” 

“Hush!” Marieken exclaimed angrily, “not an- 
other word.” She led the way around to the 
kitchen door by way of the courtyard and out of 
sight of the General, and opened the cellar door. 

Time enough to find out what was happening 
before she gave away the secret of the dairy. 
The Cure helped her bring down her mother, and 
under cover of the confusion she took her down 
to the dairy cellar to Jeanneken. 

The Cure stayed with them, for the Burgo- 
master was with the others in the Inn cellar, and 
Marieken hurried back to the road. 

She was just in time to see the officer that she 
had bidden good-by to gallop back at full speed. 
Lieutenant Schultz reported to the General with- 
out the formality of a salute. 

“They are our men, sir, retreating under a 
heavy attack ; the English are advancing all along 
the line.” 

The General’s face was purple with rage and 
he dashed back into the Inn. 


178 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


‘ 4 Order the men to rally at the end of the road 
behind that house. Hide a machine gun in the 
ruins of the town hall, then keep under cover/’ 
he ordered. The men hurried to obey. 

By this time the rifle shots had stopped, and a 
body of bedraggled men in helmets were running 
as fast as they could down the road. 

Marieken did not wait until they were any 
nearer. She left the General still giving com- 
mands and ran hurriedly out the back door. 

Shells were falling in every direction, kicking 
up the dirt in great pieces and leaving deep ugly 
holes in the field. 

At first she tried to lie down when she heard 
the warning screech of the “ whizz bangs,” but 
they came so often that she gave it up and plunged 
ahead as fast as she could. 

There was no definite thought in her mind ; she 
was going to warn Captain Teutch, Patsy and 
George about the hidden gun in the town hall, and 
how she was going to do it bothered her not at 
all. 

The retreating army of Germans were keeping 


THE ENGLISH! 179 

to the roads, and except for the shells the fields 
were free. 

Once she tnrned around, the men seemed to he 
swallowed up. Back of the town hall the street 
looked deserted; the General was laying his trap 
quickly. She stopped long enough to see some 
men tugging at the ropes of a small gun, the sight 
made her double her speed. All the cries of the 
men were far behind and seemed to have stopped 
for the most part. 

Marieken wondered how far the English were. 

She was taking the same route that she had 
traveled on the night she had delivered the letter 
to the English trenches, and she knew that she 
would soon reach the road, as it curved by the 
north boundary of the woods ; surely the English 
would be in the woods. 

As she neared it she saw men running, every 
now and again they would trip and fall over the 
dead bodies of their comrades that cluttered the 
road. 

Slie shivered as she saw them, and kept her eyes 
straight ahead. 


180 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


She was well in front of the town hall by now, 
and she decided to try and reach the road. The 
shells were falling so fast that she laid down flat 
and wriggled the short distance. 

More men were running, but in the noise from 
the bursting shells she could not tell who they 
were. 

She was just going to call out when something 
hot and stinging pierced her shoulder, and for a 
little she lay very still. 


CHAPTER XVn 

PATSY 

W HEN she opened her eyes again there 
was a confused jangling in her head, 
and she thought she heard singing, 
that gave way to the heavy tramp, tramp of men 
running. She turned her head a little ; there was 
a big brown boot not a foot away from her. She 
made a desperate effort to clutch at it, and her 
fingers caught the hoot lace, and her eyes closed 
again. 

The foot stopped, and a deep voice sounded com- 
fortingly in her ear. 

“ Glory be to the Saints in Hiven, it’s the kid! 
Darlint, what have they done to ye?” She felt 
herself being gently lifted up by strong arms. 

Her eyes opened slowly, and the first thing they 
saw was a mop of fiery red hair surmounting a 
djrty, mud-bespattered face. 

“ Patsy,” she almost sobbed the word, then the 


181 


182 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIIT 


pain in her shoulder made her wince, and she 
remembered why she had come. 

It was very hard to make Patsy understand 
about the gun; he seemed to think that she was 
talking about the pain in her shoulder, and he 
patted her soothingly. 

“ There, there, me darlint, it’s all right ye’ll be 
in no time; shure Patsy will take ye back safe, 
niver fear,” he comforted. 

Marieken shook her head and pointed hysteric- 
ally down the road. To her relief the Irishman 
seemed to understand. 

“ Blast the language,” he said, ‘ 4 wait a bit. 
Hi, Alf, tell one of those Belgians to come here 
and get aholt of the Captain. The kid’s got some- 
thing up her sleeve.” 

Marieken tried to turn her head to see Alf, 
but it made her so dizzy that she fainted. 

When she came to — it was not a minute later — 
she could have shouted for joy, for the man who 
stood over her looking anxiously into her face was 
dressed in the uniform of a Belgian soldier. 

She did not try to understand why he was 



“Marieken pointed hysterically down the road” 

Page 183 




PATSY 


185 


there; there was no time for idle speculation. 
She explained hurriedly about the hidden gun, but 
her eyes feasted on the gray-blue uniform. 

‘ ‘ The Germans are hidden in all the houses, and 
there is a gun in the town hall, ,, she said weakly, 
then her head fell back on Patsy’s supporting 
shoulder. 

The next few hours were a blur. She heard 
shouted commands that she could not understand, 
and now and again a few words of her own Flem- 
ish tongue. 

The guns roared incessantly, but she knew the 
shells were not near her. She had a queer feel- 
ing of motion that she did not quite understand, 
but the comforting nearness of Patsy — she could 
feel his big heart beat — kept her from worrying. 

She wondered about her mother and Jeanneken, 
but she couldn’t seem to remember where they 
were, and before she knew it she was dreaming 
that she was all dressed in a soft white dress with 
a blue bow on her hair and walking over smooth 
green lawns holding somebody’s hand. She 
looked up to see who it was and discovered it 


186 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


was Captain Teutch; then just as he was going 
to speak to her a very dirty yellow dog ran out 
of a house and everything grew black all of a 
sudden. She tried hard to keep looking at the 
green lawns, but they seemed to slip away from 
her, and she was alone for a long, long time in 
the darkness. A voice that she had not heard for 
a long time was speaking to her when she next 
opened her eyes, and a soft, but very thin hand was 
stroking her head. 

“Little Mother/ ’ she whispered softly. 

“Marieken! Marieken! my baby girl,” — Ma- 
dame De Bruin’s eyes were tilled with tears, and 
the light of intelligence had come back to them. 

An hour before, Patsy had stumbled down to 
the dairy cellar with Marieken in his arms. The 
sight of blood on her neck seemed to act as a 
sudden shock. Madame De Bruin had been cow- 
ering in a corner up until then, but she was the 
first to hold out her arms to Patsy, and between 
them they laid Marieken in the straw. After that 
her old look returned, and she was again the ca- 
pable innkeeper’s wife. 


PATSY 


187 


She forgot Henri, forgot her husband and even 
the guns above her, in her anxiety for her little 
daughter. 

Marieken looked about her with interest. Sev- 
eral khaki figures were lying beside her, and Jean- 
neken and a young doctor seemed to be the most 
important persons in the room. They were very 
busy going from one to the other of the prostrate 
men. 

Marieken felt a tinge of jealousy. Up until now 
she had always been the leader, and she resented 
Jeanneken’s sudden importance. She felt her 
shoulder gingerly ; it was carefully bandaged and 
didn’t hurt very much, so she tried sitting up. 

Her mother tried to push her back gently, but 
she wouldn ’t have it. 

“ What’s happened?” she demanded. The doc- 
tor and Jeanneken turned to look at her; there 
were a lot of candles burning and the cellar was 
quite bright. 

“Ah, little one, are you better?” — the doctor 
was a Belgian and spoke in Flemish. “Every- 
thing is all right; you mustn’t worry; try and go 


188 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

back to sleep like a good little girl, ’ ’ lie said sooth- 
ingly and turned to Jeanneken. 

“I will do no such thing/ ’ Marieken replied 
angrily, “and I am not a little girl.” She would 
have undoubtedly stamped her foot had she been 
able to. 

i ‘ Tell me what has happened. Did I get shot ? ’ ’ 
she demanded. 

The doctor laughed, and answered her without 
turning from his patient. 

“No, little firebrand, you were only slightly 
wounded by a bit of bursting shrapnel.” He 
might have said more, but the door above them 
opened and a voice called. 

“It’s safe to bring them up here now, Doc- 
tor; there’s not a Boche in sight. Shall I send 
down the stretcher bearers?” 

The doctor nodded and Marieken got to her 
feet. i 

“It’s all right, little Mother,” she said as 
Madame De Bruin protested weakly. “I am all 
well again, and there will be lots to do.” She 
was half way up the ladder before the doctor 


PATSY 


189 


noticed her, and her flashing eyes told him it would 
be useless to try and keep her back without actual 
force, and he had as much as he could do with the 
wounded soldiers. 

The first thing Marieken did when she reached 
the courtyard was to ask questions of one of the 
Belgians who was filling a bucket of water at the 
pump. 

He explained everything that she wanted to 
know. 

“ There was a fight,’ ’ he said, “a bad fight; the 
Germans were hiding in the houses, but our Cap- 
tain knew they were there. ’ 9 

Marieken smiled to herself. 

“But how do you happen to be with the Eng- 
lish?” she demanded. The Belgian shrugged his 
shoulders. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but we were 
fighting on the right of the Voorle and the English 
on the left. We both planned attacks at the same 
time, early this morning. They fought from their 
side, we from ours, and we met; that is all. At 
first we were surprised, but, oh, we were glad; 


190 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

it was a fine fight; the Boches ran away and we 
chased them.” 

Marieken was about to answer, but her mother, 
who had followed her, put her hand on the sol- 
dier’s arm. 

“You do not know anything of my son, do 
you ! ’ ’ she asked, trembling. 1 ‘ His name is Henri 
De Bruin; he is very young and very brave.” 
She watched him anxiously. 

The soldier shook his head. “I do not, 
Madame,” he said sorrowfully, “but rest assured 
he is safe. To-night, I myself will ask our cap- 
tain to find out about him for you,” he promised, 
“so do not worry; no news is good news.” 

Madame De Bruin thanked him wearily, and 
Marieken led her gently to the Inn. At sight of 
her kitchen upside down she stamped her foot. 

“Little Mama, do look at this! What an 
outrage! Mud, dirt, everything upside down.” 
She pushed her mother gently through the green 
baize door. Sophie was in the dining-room try- 
ing to restore some sort of order. 

She hurried to Marieken. * 4 Child, you must sit 


PATSY 191 

down, you are wounded,’ ’ she said, but Marieken 
would not wait for her to say more. 

“I am not,” she denied stoutly; “it is a mere 
nothing. Do stop being so silly, there is much 
work to do. Take Mama upstairs and get ready 
as many beds as possible,” she directed; “they are 
bringing in the wounded.” Sophie obeyed with- 
out a word, and Madame De Bruin followed her. 

Marieken went back to the kitchen. 

“Of course the fire is out,” she said to herself ; 
“well, I will soon build another; these men must 
be fed.” She went out and was just lifting a big 
piece of wood from a pile beside the barn when 
Patsy appeared around the corner. 

“And phwat are ye doin’ with that wood?” he 
demanded. “Lave it lay this minute.” He took 
the log away from her and gathered an armful. 

Marieken looked at him and grinned. 

“Lead on,” he directed importantly. 

Marieken went back to the kitchen where Patsy 
made the fire, and, with the assistance of Alf, 
tidied the kitchen, Marieken giving orders from a 
big chair in the center of the room. 


CHAPTER XVin 


MARIEKEN RECEIVES TWO DECORATIONS 

S HE was still sitting there, surrounded by an 
admiring group of Belgian and English 
soldiers, all eating heartily the jars of 
preserves, and the provisions in the dairy cellar 
were at last fulfilling their destiny, when the 
courtyard again rang with the clatter of horses’ 
hoofs and the tramp of marching footsteps, but 
this time there was no fear in her heart at the 
sound. 

More of her brave soldiers were coming to be 
fed, that was all, and she smiled happily at the 
thought. 

Her cheeks were flushed and there was a queer, 
brilliant light in her eyes. Her shoulder hurt her 
when she had time to think about it. But she 
was very feverish, and the excitement of the day 
kept her at high pitch. 


192 


RECEIVES TWO DECORATIONS 193 


She was so busy watching the men break ranks, 
in the courtyard, through the window, that she did 
not notice that some one pushed open the green 
baize door behind her and tiptoed into the room. 

i ‘ Hello, I’ve been hunting everywhere for you.” 
A voice very low and gentle, with the suspicion 
of a laugh in it, said in French. 

She turned around abruptly. Patsy and the 
rest were standing at attention. 

“Lieutenant Teutch!” she exclaimed joyfully, 
and ran to him. 

“Not Lieutenant Teutch any more; I’m Captain 
Blythe now,” he corrected as he held her thin 
shoulders in his big hands and stared at her for 
a full minute. She looked so frail and tired in 
her short black smock, and the feverish light in 
her eyes made him think of a very strong spirit 
imprisoned by a ridiculously slim little figure. 

He sat down in the big chair and pulled her 
down to his knee. 

“Why aren’t you in bed?” he asked at last. 

“I don’t want to go to bed; I’m not tired,” 
Marieken replied. “I’m going to stay up and cook 


194 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


dinner for you, such a dinner! I have dreamed 
about it so long and now it’s really coming true. 
Only fancy, I will make everything ready as usual 
and then I will pick up my tray, push open that 
door. Oh, I have pushed it open so many times, 
Monsieur Le Capitaine, — and all the time I will 
pretend that everything is just as usual. I will 
shut my eyes tight as I go through the door, and 
then when I am in the room I will open them 
quick, like this — and I will see ! Oh, Monsieur, I 
am so happy when I think what I will see. In the 
chair of that pig of a general will be a Belgian, not 
a general, perhaps, but, bah, a soldier of ours is 
worth five, no ten, fat German generals; then 
beside him will be the rest, all Belgians and Eng- 
lish; they will all be laughing like — like Patsy / ’ 
she explained, pointing to the Irishman who was 
looking at her with an expression that you see 
sometimes in a setter’s brown eyes as he looks at 
an adored master. The Captain laughed. 

“But, dear child,” he said gently, “you are not 
strong enough to get a dinner for so many hungry 

y> 


men. 


RECEIVES TWO DECORATIONS 195 


Marieken looked at him in disdain. 

i ‘Monsieur Le Capitaine,” she said proudly, 
“do you think I have never cooked for hungry men 
before ? Think, I beseech you, of the meals I have 
served to those Germans, and every one knows 
that they eat more than anybody else. ’ ’ 

The Captain shook his head in despair. 

“But, Marieken, you were not tired then, and 
you did not have a bad wound in your shoulder .’ 9 
Then as he saw the dark eyes fill with tears he 
hastened to add, ‘ ‘ I have a very fine idea ; you let 
the men get most of the dinner, tell them just what 
to do and they’ll obey every instruction, and then 
when it comes to the omelet, why, you make* 
that.” 

Marieken looked at him doubtfully, then she said 
decidedly, 

“Very well, Monsieur, I will cook only the 
omelet, as you ask, but Sophie and Jeanneken 
shall cook the rest. I will have no stupid men in 
my kitchen.” 

The Captain laughed heartily. “Very well 
then, that’s settled, and you promise faithfully to 


196 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


sit quiet in this chair and not to cook anything 
but the omelet f” 

“I promise,’ ’ Marieken agreed seriously, and 
got down from his knee and w r ent to find Sophie. 

AI1 the wounded, and there were very few, had 
been carried to the second floor of the Inn and 
settled comfortably in beds. 

Jeanneken was in charge of them all while the 
doctor snatched a little rest. She was sitting be- 
side George, and stroking his head gently, when 
Marieken found her. She looked very efficient 
and capable, her little cousin thought, and it sur- 
prised her for she had always thought of Jeanne- 
ken as very delicate and beautiful and nothing 
more. 

“I didn’t know he was wounded,” she whis- 
pered as she looked at the sleeping George. 

Jeanneken nodded. ‘ ‘His arm,” she replied; 
“the doctor says perhaps it must come off, but, he 
will live, so what does it matter?” 

Marieken tried not to cry, but the fever made 
her very weak. 


RECEIVES TWO DECORATIONS 197 


* 4 Poor George Hawkins,’ ’ she said softly, and 
hurried from the room. 

She found Sophie and her mother and Mere 
Marie busy in another part of the house. They 
were trying to get the officers’ rooms in order. 
She interrupted them and made them all go to the 
kitchen. 

Then for the next hour they worked hard. It 
might have been a feast of old that they were 
preparing instead of a very simple meal. Ma- 
dame De Bruin even smiled a little as she hurried 
from the pantry to the table, or stirred a pot on 
the stove. 

The soldiers hung around the door, eager to 
help, and Patsy kept watch over Marieken as if 
he had been her jailer. When Sophie did not 
put enough seasoning in the soup, and she started 
to do it herself, he pushed her gently, but firmly, 
back in the chair. 

“No, ye don’t, me darlint, me orders were to 
keep you quiet, and quiet ye ’ll be. ’ ’ 

Marieken did not understand his explanation, 


198 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


but no one could be angry with the grinning Patsy, 
and she sank back in her chair and watched night 
creep gently over the village. 

At first there were long shadows that length- 
ened as the sun sank behind the rim of the old 
church, and then the darkness seemed to come all 
at once. 

At last the dinner was ready, and with trem- 
bling fingers she made the omelet. 

There were nine officers at the table, ranking 
from a Belgian colonel to an English second lieu- 
tenant, but not one of them spoke a word as the 
green baize door opened and Marieken came 
through it, carrying a heavy tray, assisted by a 
Belgian orderly. 

She shut her eyes as she had planned to do and 
when she opened them her pinched little face went 
dead white for a minute, then the hot flush flowed 
back again and she gave a deep happy sigh. 

With help she served the dinner, and the men 
watched her quietly. When at last the coffee 
came, the Colonel rose to his feet and lifted his 
wine glass. 


RECEIVES TWO DECORATIONS 199 


“To the littlest Belgian soldier/ ’ he said 
gravely. 

Marieken was standing by the Captain, and 
at first she did not exactly understand. When 
all the officers looked at her, she felt sud- 
denly shy and buried her head in the Captain’s 
coat. He put his arm round her and held her 
tight. 

After the toast, when they all sat down to the 
table again, he lifted her on his lap. 

She looked at him and smiled. 

Then because she was very tired and sleepy she 
closed her eyes, her head slipped to a comfortable 
place on the Captain’s shoulder, and she fell sound 
alseep. 

For a long time the men watched her and talked 
in whispers. 

The Captain had only told them of her warn- 
ing about the hidden gun; they did not know of 
her other courageous deeds. 

When he was sure that his voice would not wake 
her he related what he knew of the rest. 

The men listened in astonishment, and not in- 


200 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


frequently one of them would blow his nose loudly 
and cough to hide his feelings. 

“To-day you know what she did,” the Captain 
finished, “it’s quite a story, isn’t it?” He moved 
her head gently and unfastened the bar of colored 
ribbon that he wore on his coat. It was the serv- 
ice bar for the V. C. He pinned it clumsily on the 
soiled black smock. 

“It’s really hers by right,” he said quietly. 

The Belgian Colonel nodded. He was wearing 
the Cross of King Albert around his neck. He 
slipped it over his head gravely and hung it rever- 
ently beside the symbol of the other cross. The 
rest rose to their feet and drank another toast, all 
but the Captain, he could not move for Marieken’s 
golden head was still resting on his shoulder as she 
slept on, unconscious of the honors bestowed upon 
her. 


CHAPTER XIX 


DAYS OF REST 

A GREEN lawn, flooded with the later 
afternoon sunshine, stretched out invit- 
ingly from either side of a poplar-bor- 
dered roadway. An occasional bird chirruped 
and twittered in the treetops, and a flock of rain- 
bow-tinted butterflies hovered around a single rose 
bush. 

A broad house of gray stone stood at the end 
of the road, and its windows gave back the re- 
flection of the sun as it sank lazily in the west. 
Farther on, beyond the other end of the road, a 
little clump of cottages snuggled securely around 
a tiny square, paved with great warm flagstones. 
Nothing broke the stillness and peace of the after- 
noon, and the village of Fleurette drowsed con- 
tentedly, apparently unconscious of the thunder of 
the guns away to the north. 

201 


202 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Three months had passed since Zandre had been 
taken away from the astonished Germans, and 
Marieken had been honored by both the Belgian 
and the English armies. 

They had been busy months, and had wit- 
nessed many changes. 

First of all had come a Red Cross automobile, 
bringing a smiling American girl in a dark blue 
cap. She had talked for a long time to Captain 
Blythe, and the outcome of the talk had been a 
long ride in the same automobile for Marieken, her 
mother and Jeanneken. 

At first Marieken had flatly refused to leave the 
Inn, but when the old Cure and the Burgomaster, 
as well as the Captain and the American girl, not 
to mention Patsy, had insisted, she gave in. She 
sat beside the American girl, whose name was 
Miss Brooks, in the automobile, and before Zandre 
was out of sight she was talking to her as if she 
had known her for a long time. 

They had stopped at a village a long ways be- 
hind the lines, and Marieken had been put to bed 
and kept there until the wound in her shoulder 


DAYS OF REST 


203 


was well and the fever had gone. Her mother 
had stayed with her, but Miss Brooks had taken 
Jeanneken away with her. The little village was 
very uninteresting, and Marieken was beginning 
to get very tired of doing nothing, when one day 
the automobile came down the little street and 
she and her mother were whisked away again by 
the powerful Miss Brooks. This time they rode 
through fields that were green instead of pock- 
marked by ugly shell holes, and they heard birds 
in the trees. 

Their destination was Fleurette, a tiny little 
village far away from the fighting. The big house 
in the center of the green lawn was a convalescent 
hospital. Miss Brooks was in charge of it, and 
Jeanneken was now one of the helpers. She wore 
a blue dress and something over her hair to keep 
it from flying, and Marieken thought she looked 
like a nun; she was working very hard. 

Private George Hawkins had recovered from his 
wound and had gone back to fight in another at- 
tack from which he had come out unharmed, and 
with the exalted rank of corporal. 


204 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Marieken and her mother did not stay at the 
hospital, but lived in the village with some kindly 
folk who took very good care of them and treated 
Marieken as if she were some rare being from an- 
other planet. 

At first this pleased her, and she went about 
looking at the green trees and the flowers in per- 
fect contentment, but after a little the old restless 
spirit asserted itself. 

She besieged Miss Brooks to let her help Jean- 
neken at the hospital. As it happened they were 
short-handed and more patients were coming 
every day, so Miss Brooks, after a little demur, 
gave in, and Marieken went down to the great 
high-raftered kitchen and worked at anything she 
could find to do. 

Most of the nurses were Americans and they 
spoiled their new helper whenever they had a min- 
ute to spare. 

When this chapter opens one of them, a Miss 
Grace Lucas, was sitting with her back to a tree 
on the green lawn at the side of the house, beside 


DAYS OF REST 205 

a Belgian soldier who was sitting propped up by 
cushions on a comfortable steamer chair. 

Marieken was sitting on the ground beside them. 

‘ 4 Teach me some English words/ ’ she said, 
smiling at Miss Lucas. 

“ What do you want to say?” the nurse inquired 
good naturedly. 

“Oh, how do you do, Captain; I am very glad 
to see you.” 

Miss Lucas, repeated the words slowly in Eng- 
lish, and Marieken and the soldier both tried to 
pronounce them, but it was useless. At last 
Marieken gave up in despair. “I will never learn 
your language,” she said forlornly, “and I wanted 
to so much.” 

“But you can speak German,” Miss Lucas re- 
minded her, “so you ought not to expect to know 
too much.” 

“But I want to speak English too. Please say 
it again to me,” Marieken insisted. 

Miss Lucas laughed and repeated the phrase 
slowly. 


206 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

‘ i Good morning, Captain; I am very glad to see 
you.” 

Marieken pursed up her lips to try and say the 
words, but the sight of Jeanneken coming across 
the lawn made her stop and call out instead. 

“What is it!” 

Jeanneken flourished a letter, but she did not 
reply until she was seated on the ground beside 
them. Then she turned a face, flushed with happy 
blushes, to Miss Lucas. 

“It is a letter — a long letter from George,” 
she said, “and it is written in English — I can 
read so little, it is hard, and though I have tried 
I cannot understand,” she said. 

“Why does he write to you in English?” Marie- 
ken exclaimed; “his French is quite good.” 

“But I wrote him that I was learning his lan- 
guage from the kind Miss Lucas ; perhaps I 
bragged a little about it, so you see he is answer- 
ing, and of course, I cannot make it out — writ- 
ing is so different from speaking.” 

Miss Lucas had watched Jeanneken with a 
smile ; her confusion was very pretty. 


DAYS OF REST 


207 


“Shall I help?” she offered, “I may be able to 
understand, and—” she added with a little laugh, 
“I promise not to tell what he says.” 

“That is just it,” Jeanneken replied with en- 
gaging frankness; “you see I cannot tell what is 
in it, and perhaps — ” 

“Oh, bother,” Marieken interrupted, “we un- 
derstand, you think perhaps he has been silly and 
sentimental, but you will see he hasn’t. English- 
men do not say silly things. When they are most 
serious inside they laugh; I know,” she added 
proudly, “for that is the way with my Captain.” 

“You are very wise,” the Belgian soldier 
laughed, “and you are right, I have fought beside 
them and they are always laughing.” 

“Come Jeanneken,” Miss Lucas held out her 
hand for the letter. 

“We will all help you translate it.” 

Very reluctantly Jeanneken handed over the let- 
ter and Miss Lucas read it, translating it as best 
she could : 

“Dearest Jeannie, 

“How is that for a beginning? You see I have 


208 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

just found out that Jeanneken means Little Jeanne 
in your language, and I am very proud of my- 
self. 

“ You are not the only one who is taking lessons, 
Miss .” 

“What does he mean by that?” Jeanneken 
asked. 

“He must be studying, too; perhaps he has 
found a Belgian to teach him,” Miss Lucas ex- 
plained. 

‘ ‘ Then he wishes to learn my language ; that is 
very dear of him,” Jeanneken replied happily, 
and looked self-conscious. 

Miss Lucas returned to the letter. 

“You’re a little bit of all right to bother your 
sweet head with English, and I guess you know 
how much I appreciate it — ” 

“It looks as if you both agreed on that any- 
way,” Miss Lucas laughed. 

But Jeanneken looked puzzled. 

“Why does he say ‘only a little bit of all right,’ 
I want so to have him think I am all all right?” 
she complained. 


DAYS OP REST 


209 


It was Miss Lucas ’ turn to look puzzled. 

‘ 4 That ’s what he means, my dear, I can ’t explain 
why, but a ‘little bit of all right,’ means lots more 
than if he had said just all right.” 

J eanneken accepted the explanation politely, 
but she did not understand at all. It was Marie - 
ken who finally dispelled her doubts. 

“I know what he means,” she said seriously. 
“Right, is a great big something, like the world or 
the sky or the stars, and you are a little bit of it. 
You see it would be silly for him to say that you 
were all of it, and indeed its an honor to be even 
a little bit,” she added. 

“There now, surely that satisfies you,” the 
soldier laughed. “I have often wondered myself 
why the English say that, and perhaps our little 
Marieken has really told us.” 

“Anyway it’s a beautiful explanation and I’m 
sure it’s what George meant,” Miss Lucas said; 
“let’s see.” She picked up the letter again. 
“He uses it again,” she laughed; “listen.” 

“But then I think you are a little bit all right 
any old way you look at it. Queer our running 


210 MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 

into each other that day in the old ladies’ house; 
wasn’t it? 

“I can remember when I heard your voice; a 
real treat it was, I can tell you, and that jolly 
dinner we had; you laughed same as us, you’d 
have thought you hadn’t a care in the world, and 
the shine you gave our boots. Why Jeanneken — 
(I kind of like that way of saying it best — ”) 

“lam glad of that,” Jeanneken put in gently, 
without seeming to interrupt. 

“I get a sort of hot feeling in my eyes when I 
think of it. As I said before you’re a little bit 
of all right.” 

This time Jeanneken smiled. 

“We had a pretty hot time last time we were 
up front; Fritz was rather nasty, he kept send- 
ing over more shells than usual and he acted so 
mysterious that our Captain sent us over to have 
a look. It’s a queer feeling I can tell you, crawl- 
ing out in the dark and listening right up at 
Fritz’s front door, as you might say, but we got 
back all right, but we had a bit of a surprise. We 
were bringing back what we thought was a Hun, 


DAYS OF REST 


211 


but bless me it was one of your countrymen — a 
Belgian— guess wbat he’d been at? Pumping old 
Fritz for all he was worth and Fritz didn’t know 
it, ’cause Henri wore a coat and helmet that he’d 
found, and though they didn’t fit him he made 
good. He was waiting to creep over to our lines 
when we made our little surprise attack. I 
thought he held up his hand and hollered ‘Kama- 
rad’ in pretty much of a hurry, but I never sus- 
pected until we had him back in the trench and our 
Captain was questioning him — he’d been in no 
end of danger, he had, and he was as cool as a 
daisy; courage to spare. Why he made us look 
sick, but that’s the way with your fellows, they 
seem to like taking chances and being careless 
with their lives, and tnat’s the reason they’re 
going to win, they and their cousin, the little 
poilu. Of course you understand that Tommy At- 
kins is going to lend a helping hand on the side, 
and when the war is over and the busses run from 
Paris to Berlin, why the future Mrs. George Haw- 
kins is going to have the latest in wedding 
rings — 


212 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


“Oh,” Jeanneken laughed excitedly, and her 
eyes looked at the third finger of her left hand. 

“And any little thing besides that a poor old 
soldier can give her. In the meantime ten kisses. 
Keep up your courage and if I get a few days 
leave I’ll be with you; you can count on that. 

1 ‘ All my love you understand, and thanking you 
in advance for yours, I am 

“Your loving George.” 

“Is that all?” Jeanneken asked. Miss Lucas 
chuckled. 

“Yes, it’s all, and I think it’s a perfectly lovely 
letter; don’t you, Marieken?” 

Marieken gave herself a little shake, her 
thoughts had been with the Belgian soldier whose 
name was Henri. 

“Of course I do,” she agreed promptly. 

“Oh, the English are fine fellows,” the Bel- 
gian exclaimed, “they are — how is it you say — 
‘a little bit all right.’ ” 

Jeanneken looked up and smiled. 


DAYS OF REST 213 

“I know one who is all all right,” she said 
shyly. 

They laughed away the rest of the afternoon, 
and it was not until the sun disappeared into a 
hank of clouds, tinting them a shell pink, that they 
moved the soldier back into the ward and set about 
their evening duties. 

Jeanneken’s work was almost altogether in the 
kitchen. She cooked some of the special dishes 
for the sick men, and Marieken helped her. Only 
on the rarest occasion did they go up to the wards. 

This evening after the dishes were all washed 
and put away, and the rest of the kitchen was in 
spick-and-span order, the two cousins walked down 
the road slowly, arm in arm. Marieken went back 
to sleep with her mother in the village every night, 
and Jeanneken always walked half of the distance 
with her. 

To-night they were both very thoughtful. At 
last Marieken said: 

“Do you think we will ever hear again of Henri 
or Josef?” 


214 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


Her cousin shook her head. 

“Only the good God knows. Of Josef I have 
no fear; he is with our soldiers, and I know they 
will not let him go too near danger. The men he 
went off with were going into billets, and surely 
they found him a home that was safe. A little 
boy could not be allowed into the trenches. But 
of Henri,” she paused. “Does she ask for him 
often?” she inquired. 

Marieken nodded. 

“Not in words, no. She sews all day on the 
nightshirts for the patients, and every time I come 
in she smiles, but her eyes, they are asking every 
second: where is Henri?” 

“Well, we must not give up hope; some day 
we will all be together again, and the Inn will be 
as jolly and gay on the feast days as ever,” Jean- 
neken said bravely. 

Marieken looked at her in surprise. She was 
wondering if she had forgotten Corporal Haw- 
kins, but she did not ask the question, for at that 
moment a heavy rumbling noise made them stop 
and listen. 


DAYS OF REST 215 

“It can’t be the guns,” Jeanneken said excit- 
edly. 

“No, no. They make another kind of noise. 
Listen, they are automobiles, lots of them; I have 
heard them before,” Marieken explained. 

They waited, and in a short time a big gray 
motor lorry, followed by a train of others, rumbled 
down the road. 

The girls waited beside the road for them to 
pass, and watched them turn into the hospital 
driveway. 

“More wounded; I must go back and help,” 
Jeanneken said. “What a lot there must be.” 

“Perhaps some of the cars have supplies,” Ma- 
rieken suggested; but you’d better hurry. Good 
night.” 

“Good night,” Jeanneken called over her shoul- 
der as she ran back to the hospital, and Marieken 
walked slowly the rest of the way to the village, 
her thoughts still on the story of the brave Bel- 
gian named Henri. 


CHAPTER XX 


A REUNION 


HE next morning all was stir and bustle 



at the hospital. The big motor lorries had 


been tilled with wounded, well enough to 
be transferred from the base hospitals to the con- 
valescent homes. 

Fleurette was getting its share of them, and 
poor Miss Brooks was beside herself to know 
where to find extra beds. 

The work in the kitchen was almost doubled, 
and Marieken was working furiously. 

“Are they English or Belgian ?” she asked Miss 
Lucas, as she darted through the hall. 

“Belgians, and some of them are much too sick 
to have been moved, poor fellows, but there has 
been a terrible battle, goodness knows where, and 
they had to clear the hospitals for the badly 
wounded. Gracious, what’s that?” 


216 


A REUNION 217 

The chug, chug of a motor cycle outside sent 
her hurrying to the front door. 

Marieken returned to the kitchen and busied 
herself with preparing some trays that were on 
the long side table. She was hunting for the blue 
cup that matched a certain blue saucer, the pride 
and envy of the ward, when Miss Lucas returned. 
She was breathless with excitement and her cheeks 
and eyes were glowing. 

“ Girls, it has come at last,” she said in English, 
‘ 4 come quickly. America has declared war.” 
Every one in the room, including Jeanneken, who 
was filling a hot-water bottle, dropped what they 
were doing and hurried after Miss Lucas to the 
front hall, where they surrounded a tired and 
dusty, but triumphant, messenger. 

Marieken was alone in the kitchen. She had 
not understood what Miss Lucas had said, for 
Jeanneken ’s English lessons had progressed far 
more rapidly than hers. 

Instead of following to find out what it was all 
about, she picked up the forgotten hot-water bot- 
tle and filled it. She was careful to let the air 


218 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


out before she screwed in the stopper, as Miss 
Brooks had showed her. When she felt to her 
own satisfaction that it was soft enough she picked 
it up, along with a glass of egg-nog that she found 
ready, and went up the back way to one of the 
wards. 

She stopped in the doorway and looked around 
her. The room was decorated in gold and white, 
a magnificent crystal chandelier hung in the cen- 
ter of it, and the walls and ceilings were decorated 
with delicate frescoes. In the days before the 
war it had been the ballroom of the famous old 
chateau ; it made a queer setting now for the rows 
of white iron beds that lined either wall. 

Marieken looked down at the men; their faces 
were new to her, and she knew they were some of 
the arrivals of the night before. 

“Who wanted a hot-water bottle V 1 she asked. 

The men turned their heads to look, and one at 
the far end of the room sat up suddenly. 

“Am I dreaming,’ ’ he said excitedly, “tell me, 
tell me, comrade.” 

But there was no need for him to say more. 


A REUNION 


219 


Marieken looked at him in unbelievable joy, 
dropped the bag of hot water and the glass of egg- 
nog and shouted, “Henri, my brother !” and 
darted to him. 

Henri kissed her and exclaimed and kissed her 
again. The men smiled delightedly, in spite of 
their suffering, and more than one whispered, 
“Lucky dog.” 

It was a long time before Marieken could col- 
lect her scattered and excited wits. When she 
did it was to find Miss Lucas and Miss Brooks 
mopping up the egg-nog. She tried to apologize. 

“Never mind, dear child. I would have 
dropped it too if I had been in your place, and 
you’ve found your wonderful Henri at last, and 
now the little mother will be happy again. Run 
and tell her quickly. I’ll find your cousin.” 

Marieken raced down the steps and out to the 
driveway, down the road that seemed to have 
stretched to twice its usual length, and at last in 
through the little door of the cottage where her 
mother was sewing. 

“Mama, Mama,” she said, “I have wonderful,” 


220 


MAEIEKEN DE BRUIN 


— but she got no farther. Madame De Bruin 
stood up and let her work fall to the floor. 

“ Henri, you have found him?” she said trem- 
bling. i ‘Where is he?” 

Marieken looked at her in wonder. 

“At the hospital, safe and almost well. But 
how did you guess?” 

Madame De Bruin looked up and smiled, as she 
started towards the door. 

They hurried back up the road. Miss Brooks 
met them at the door of the chateau. 

“We’ve moved him in here, dear, so that you 
could talk and not disturb the rest,” — she pointed 
to a little room to the right. 

Madame De Bruin was in it, and on her knees 
beside her son in an instant. Jeanneken was 
standing at the foot of the bed. 

“Only fancy,” she said joyfully, “it was Hen- 
ri’s regiment that Josef ran off with, only a differ- 
ent company. The soldiers kept him with them 
for a mascot, and when they went back to the 
trenches the little wretch joined the boy scouts. 
He must have told some fine fibs about his age.” 


A REUNION 221 

Marieken laughed happily. “Oh, I knew he 
would take care of himself,” she said. 

They sat with Henri for the rest of the morn- 
ing, plying him with questions. 

He told them very little about the war, but a 
great deal about his little maraine in America. 

“What was her name?” his mother inquired. 
“May the good God bless her for being kind to 
my boy. * * 

“Her name was Helen Carey,” Henri replied, 
* ‘ and she had, oh, so many brothers, — or no — boys 
that she called brothers, and now that America 
had joined us I suppose they will all come over 
and fight, but some day I will read you all her let- 
ters, then you will see how nice she is. No more 
about her now; tell me about yourself. I hear 
that my Marieken is a brave girl, but I always 
knew that. Now, now, little mother, don’t cry. 
I am safe and well, there, there.” 

He patted his mother’s gray hair lovingly, and 
she sobbed out her relief on the pillow beside him. 

“Henri, my little Risken,” she whispered. 

The two girls stole softly out of the room. 


CHAPTER XXI 


INTRODUCING ALICE BLYTHE 

WEEK later, when the hospital had re- 



covered from the excitement that the 


^ reunion of the De Bruin family had 
caused and things were again running smoothly, 
Miss Brooks entered the kitchen with a smile 
lurking in the corner of her mouth. 

“Marieken,” she called gravely, “there is a 
gentleman here to see you.” 

Marieken, who was busy scouring some pans, 
looked up in dismay. 

“To see me? But who is he?” 

“I don’t know,” Miss Brooks teased. “You’d 
better go and find out; but first put on a clean 
apron ; here ’s one that will just fit you ; run in the 
pantry and put it on. ’ ’ 

Marieken took the bundle of soft white and hur- 
ried to the pantry. She did not see until she had 
unfolded it that the “apron,” so called, was a new 


222 


INTRODUCING ALICE BLYTHE 223 

white dress with a blue belt. She was so ex- 
cited over the discovery that she had to call Jean- 
neken to help her put it on. 

When she was buttoned up, and a hasty comb 
had been run through her hair, she followed Miss 
Brooks to the little reception room. 

Captain Blythe was standing directly under the 
chandelier, and his head very nearly touched it. 

“Hello! My, but you do look fine, ,, he said 
by way of greeting, but Marieken threw herself 
into his arms and kissed him enthusiastically. 

“Glad to see me as all that?” he asked, laugh- 
ing. 

Marieken nodded. 

“Did you bring me this lovely dress?” she de- 
manded. 

Captain Blythe looked at her simple white frock. 

“No,” he said slowly, “that’s a little present 
from my sister Alice. I’ve told her about you 
and she thinks you’re fine. She says she’s coming 
over here to see you some day.” 

They had moved toward the door while they 
talked, and down the broad steps to the lawn. 


224 


MARIEKEN DE BRUIN 


The Captain was holding Marieken ’s hand, and 
she had a queer feeling that it had all happened 
before. 

The Captain took a small note book from his 
pocket, and she recognized it as the one she gave 
to George. He opened it at a page that was all 
filled with x’s. 

‘ 1 Will you please tell me what all those mean,” 
he said, smiling quietly; i ‘it’s worried them at 
headquarters a lot.” 

Marieken flushed. “Oh, those,” she said, 
“don’t mean anything. I just put them there to 
show how much I hated each one of the German 
officers. I was going to get even with them, 
and — ” she laughed, “I guess I did.” 

“Go on,” the Captain prompted. 

“No, I don’t want to. You tell me about your 
sister Alice,” Marieken teased. 

“Oh, that would take too long,” the Captain 
protested. “Some day when I’ve lots of time I’ll 
tell you about her,” he promised, and for a few 
minutes longer they walked together over the 
green lawn. 


THE END 

















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